Russia Against Foreign Interference in Niger

By Staff, Agencies

The Kremlin said potential interference of non-regional powers, such as the United States, in Niger's domestic affairs was unlikely to help improve the situation.

Niger's elite presidential guards seized President Mohamed Bazoum and sequestered him in the presidential palace on July 26.

“It is unlikely that the intervention of non-regional forces is capable of changing the situation for the better,” the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

Russians were “monitoring the situation very closely, we are concerned about the tension in Niger, and we continue to favor a swift return to constitutional normality without endangering human lives,” he said.

Niger’s Western partners and regional allies, including former colonial power France, have imposed sweeping sanctions on the coup-hit country in an effort to mount international pressure on the putschists to reinstate Bazoum. The ousted president himself has appealed to the international community, the United States in particular, to intervene militarily and restore his presidency.

The self-declared new military leader of Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani, 59, remains defiant. He says the junta will not back down despite the “inhumane” sanctions.

Tiani is the powerful former head of Niger’s presidential guard and enjoys the support of the armed forces as well as fellow juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso. Tiani is also backed by the Wagner group which has deployed fighters in Mali and the Central African Republic.