Tag: Niger

By Francis Okpaleke & Olumba E. Ezenwa

A month after the coup in Niger that toppled the democratically elected civilian government of Mohamed Bazoum, the country’s neighbours are still debating the possibility of military intervention. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) – a coalition of West African countries, which includes Niger – has said it intends to send in a taskforce to topple the military junta led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, which ousted Bazoum on July 26.

But the plan to intervene is not without controversy. Niger, a landlocked nation, shares borders with Mali, Algeria, Libya, Chad, Benin and Burkina Faso. These countries have expressed solidarity with the military junta and have committed to oppose any potential ECOWAS intervention.

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France, which occupied Niger from 1890 until independence in 1960, has also considered intervention – it has a small contingent of troops in the country ostensibly to combat jihadi insurgency in the Sahel region – which the junta has given them notice to withdraw. Algeria has also denied France permission to fly over the country.

For now, the situation remains fluid and uncertain. But beneath the surface of daily news headlines is an intricate web of geopolitical competition and strategic agendas that have profound consequences for the Nigerien people.

The recent coup underscores a geopolitical rivalry deeply rooted in colonial and neo-colonial legacies and intensified by some western nations’ drive for the control of Niger’s resources.

Although Niger grapples with extreme poverty, leading to widespread malnutrition and hunger among its citizens, it is the world’s seventh-biggest producer of uranium. This juxtaposition of mineral wealth and societal poverty underscores the irony of a nation abundant in resources yet plagued by profound economic hardships.

First discovered in 1957 at Azelik by a French colonial expedition looking for copper deposits, Uranium now ranks as Niger’s second-largest export in monetary value – surpassed only by gold. The country is a principal supplier of uranium to the European Union (EU) and contributes between 15% and 17% of the uranium fuelling France’s electricity generation.

Meanwhile, the country struggles to produce its own electricity because Nigeria recently terminated its power supply to the nation as a sanction against the military junta, leaving much of the country in darkness.

Western exploitation

Given its abundant natural resources, it seems counterintuitive for Niger to rank among the world’s poorest nations. Yet its economic and political struggles have deep roots in historical foreign interventions, exploitation and resource extraction. This situation has, for decades, been further compounded by misguided and ineffective leadership, often conniving in exploitation by foreign interests.

While some ECOWAS members oppose the coup in Niger and have threatened military intervention against the coup leaders, some western countries are manoeuvring to uphold their interests. The Nigerian senate opposes military intervention, with one of its members alleging that ECOWAS would merely be doing France and America’s bidding. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu suggested that if there is to be military action, it should be carried out by French and US troops.

Colonial powers and other major geopolitical actors have profoundly influenced Niger’s contemporary situation. France, referred to by the New York Times recently as the “Former Coloniser that Stayed”, has already warned that any attack on its interests in Niger will be met with retaliation. Meanwhile the reported presence of Wagner Group mercenaries in the country, after a request from the coup leaders, is a proxy for Russian interests in Niger.

But following the reported death of Wagner Group boss, Yevgeny Progozhin, after his private jet is understood to have crashed on a trip from St Petersburg to Moscow on August 23, the status of the Wagner Group activities in Niger – and Africa generally – is uncertain. However, their operations may come under the direct control of Russia’s military.

African resources, western interests

Another important resource issue threatened by instability in Niger is the trans-Saharan gas pipeline (TSGP), designed to transport natural gas from Nigeria through Niger and on to Algeria and then to Europe. One of the drivers of this project in the past two years has been the European need to wean itself off Russian gas supplies in light of the war in Ukraine.

Yet again, western resource needs are dictating events in supposedly independent and sovereign African countries.

The dominant narrative in West Africa frequently presents foreign interventions as benevolent efforts to stabilise the Sahel region, in particular, against the threat of jihadi insurgency. Yet a deeper examination uncovers a more intricate reality. As western powers strive to shape political dynamics in Niger – driven not just by a desire for stability but also to preserve their dominance and control over resource allocation – they portray Niger, and by extension, Africa, as mere markets within the global economy. This ignores the potential humanitarian consequences of such interventions for the people of Niger and West Africa in general.

As Niger faces political instability and possible violent conflict, there’s a pressing need to critically evaluate the motives and repercussions of foreign intervention.

Beyond the veneer of the quest for democracy and stability, the various players’ deeper strategic intentions must be scrutinised. This is the key to understanding the multifaceted dynamics in the Sahel region and their broader global implications.

•Okpaleke is PhD candidate, Politics and International Security, University of Waikato. Ezenwa is Doctoral Research Fellow, Conflict, Violence, & Terrorism Research Centre, Royal Holloway University of London.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. “https://theconversation.com/nigers-resource-paradox-what-should-make-the-country-rich-has-made-it-a-target-for-predators-212209”

• By Alade Fawole

The crisis in Niger Republic it isn’t going to go away in a hurry, the junta has thrown down the gauntlet and ECOWAS has also doubled down on its demands. The global community is seized on the crisis, many for selfish reasons and a few for altruistic purposes. As these are happening, more questions than answers or solutions keep popping up.

I will raise a few of them here, but don’t expect me to provide the answers. First, and perhaps most critical is: what is ECOWAS real endgame and exit strategy after it might have succeeded in removing the junta and restoring the ousted democratic government in Niamey? So far, it appears the sole objective is the removal of the coupists who are occupying power unconstitutionally and restoration of the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum back in the saddle. ECOWAS seems poised to use military force to accomplish this objective should push comes to shove, and has just activated its hitherto dormant regional standby force for this purpose. Should the use of military force become inevitable, how far is the regional body willing to go to defend the government it restores? ECOWAS may not be able to just walk away casually; it will have to find a way to stabilize a broken country, provide security for senior government personnel and general protection in the capital for the government to operate since the loyalty of the armed forces humiliated out of power can no longer be taken for granted. 

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What would ECOWAS be willing to do in the unlikely event that Bazoum becomes a casualty in the military face-off that would ensue, either killed deliberately by angry coupists or accidentally in the exchange of gunfire? Such an eventuality is definitely bound to introduce unwanted complications. Such happened during the ECOMOG operations in Liberia when President Samuel Doe ran into an ambush laid by Prince Yormie Johnson’s rebel fighters at the ECOMOG headquarters in the capital, Monrovia in 1990, was captured and executed by the sanguinary rebels. ECOWAS had to create an interim government of national unity with Amos Sawyer as interim president from 1990 to 1994. Nigeria reportedly blew an estimated $13 billion on the ECOMOG operations in Liberia.

If the only endgame is democratic restoration, then what is the exit strategy in case this objective has to be achieved by the use of military force? That is, how does ECOWAS intend to extricate itself from what would be a bloody mess in the event of a bloody military confrontation? Again, is restoration of democracy the goal or a means to an end? What, or whose purpose exactly, local or foreign, is this democratic restoration intended to serve? Neither Nigeria, the regional powerhouse leading the charge, nor ECOWAS as a regional body, has openly addressed this poser. What will be the fate of Niger once democracy is restored and ECOWAS walks away inebriated with satisfaction? Is it going to be a continuation of the same ruthless foreign exploitation and gross poverty that caused anger and resentment in the first instance? Why is ECOWAS fixated on democratic restoration to the exclusion of the more germane issues like France’s predatory neo-colonialism, which fellow juntas in Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso have also raised?

Thus far, attention is on the removing General Abdourahamane Tchiani’s junta because its existence offends against the provisions of ECOWAS protocols on democracy and zero tolerance for coups and unconstitutional change of governments. A raft of unilateral and collective sanctions has already been imposed by Nigeria and ECOWAS respectively. What’s in it for the hapless and deprived people of Niger, a country so blessed with vital natural resources but yet remains one of the poorest in the world, for whom democratic governance has brought zero benefits? 

It is clear that enlightened public opinion in Nigeria – NIPSS Alumni Association, Nigerian Political Science Association, former diplomats, retired military brass, newspaper editorials, religious bodies, ethnic associations – is decidedly against use of force because of the potential to allow the crisis degenerate into a large scale regional conflagration that will endanger the fragile economy and the fractious society, and ultimately compromise Nigeria’s national security. Widespread opinion in the northern states which share contiguous borders and ethnic affinity with Niger Republic and are themselves battling terrorism, insurgency and armed banditry have made this clear. Good thing is, while the government is publicly doubling down on its stand, it is also seeking diplomatic options.

If foreign policy is the pursuit of a country’s national interests in the larger international community, then the federal government should listen and exercise caution to avoid jeopardizing the interests of Nigerians and the security of the nation in pursuit of external glory. Nigerians do not want their country to become an enemy of Niger, for the ties that bind are many and should not be casually compromised or jeopardized.

It is curious, and should raise concern also, that all the seven recent coups in West and Central Africa – Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad, and now Niger – as well as unconstitutional tenure extension in Cote d’Ivoire, have occurred in French-speaking countries. And the new juntas in West Africa have publicly denounced France’s neo-colonial plunder of their respective countries, and have been repudiating the neo-colonial pacts by which France had held them in thraldom for decades, including expelling French soldiers from their soil. Their main grouse is mostly against France, not necessarily other Western nations even though the US is also culpable in the offending exploitation.

Even with over a thousand US troops and two drone bases deployed in Niger, ostensibly for counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel, terrorist attacks have nonetheless been on the rise. So, the question is: whose interests are France and the US really serving in the Sahel region? First, Niger is rich in Uranium which powers electricity supply in France while less than 20 percent of Nigeriens have access to electricity; second, their gold and oil are also exploited by foreign economic interests, leaving them severely marginalized and poor. France has threatened to invade the country and kill the people so it could continue the plunder.

Are the foreign powers currently emboldening ECOWAS to use force truly interested in restoring democracy only, or merely to satisfy selfish economic interests and geopolitical designs of curtailing Russian and Chinese influence in the sub-region? Is the whole exercise to reinstate democracy or to make the country safe for the continuation of French neo-colonial exploitation and oppression? Let us for the sake of argument imagine that the junta is driven away from Niamey this morning, and the government of President Bazoum, the celebrated last remaining Western ally in the Sahel region, is restored to office, will France’s troops remain in the country for the protection of AREVA, the French company exploiting its uranium, the same natural resource which makes France enjoy electricity but which has never benefited the hapless people of Niger?

 A cautionary advice which many others had given: ECOWAS and Nigeria must avoid being seen as doing France’s and America’s dirty jobs for them, serving imperialist interests against the people of Niger and Africa who are desperate for a just escape from France’s political and economic strangulation?