It was an awkward moment for other African leaders. “The normalization and dignity of military insurrections should unsettle our great continent,” Kenya’s foreign secretary wrote in posting the photo this week.
Now Burkina Faso and another African country ruled by a military junta, Mali, have taken the unusual position of saying that any military intervention in Niger after last week’s coup will be seen as a declaration of war against them as well.
In such a way they defied the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS, or ECOWAS for its acronym in English), which warned on Sunday that it could use force if Niger’s military junta does not reinstate the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, in the space of a week. Another coup-ruled country, Guinea, in a separate statement supported the Niger junta and called on ECOWAS to “restore sanity”.
Support for the coup in Niger complicates the international response and tests the will of neighboring countries. They also reflect what a United Nations study found last month after polling thousands of citizens of African countries that have recently undergone military coups or other undemocratic political transitions.
“A possible regional scenario could be that the military juntas of Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso come together” to counter any regional response to military coups, the report says. He warned that they could defy sanctions and organize elections, with the help of “new international alliances”.
The report says that “paradoxically,” popular support for the recent coups in Africa is “symptomatic of a new wave of democratic aspirations spreading across the continent,” as young populations become frustrated with current political and economic systems. and they demand faster changes than those brought about by elections.
Many simply crave security as Islamic extremists increase their reach in the Sahel, the arid zone south of the Sahara Desert. “I think a military regime in Niger will be able to better coordinate its military actions with Mali and Burkina Faso to combat terrorism,” Harber Cisse, a Mali national living in Guinea, told The Associated Press. He believes Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, is “turning a blind eye” and allowing extremists into Mali.
Those who remember past coups in the region are not necessarily shocked by the military announcements and street protests. The UN study found optimism and enthusiasm along with anxiety about the future, as well as an impatience that has led to several military coups, in a matter of a few months and in more than one country. There were four coups in Africa in 2021, the most in a single year in two decades.
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Reporters Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali and Sam Mednick in Niamey, Niger contributed to this story.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
