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A top State Department official held what she described as “difficult” talks in the West African country of Niger on Monday in a bid to start negotiations with the military junta that last month deposed the elected president, a key U.S. ally in the region.
Acting deputy secretary of state Victoria Nuland visited the Nigerien capital, Niamey, to try to “get some negotiations going, and also to make absolutely clear what is at stake in our relationship and the economic and other kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored,” she told reporters in a phone briefing as she departed the country. “These conversations were extremely frank and at times quite difficult.”
Nuland’s visit, which reflected the importance of Niger to U.S. efforts at combating Islamist extremism in Africa, sought to counter political backsliding in the country. The ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, took office in 2021 in the first democratic transfer of power since Niger gained independence.
But Nuland gave little indication that she had gained traction with the junta, which is led by the head of Niger’s presidential guard. “Their ideas do not comport with the constitution. And that will be difficult in terms of our relationship if that’s the path they take,” she said.
She was not granted access to Bazoum or to the head of the junta, she said, over the course of conversations that lasted hours.
Nuland said she offered the United States as a mediator. “We are prepared to help with that, we are prepared to help address concerns on all sides. I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer, but I’m hoping that they will think about it,” she said.
A flurry of backroom negotiations intensified Monday after the country’s military junta shut its airspace during a tense regional standoff.
The head of the presidential guard, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, overthrew Bazoum in a bloodless coup on July 26, provoking consternation among Western allies that relied on Niger to help fight Islamist militants and people smugglers.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 15-nation regional bloc, had threatened military intervention if the junta did not reinstate Bazoum by Sunday. Niger’s military leaders abruptly shut down its airspace as the deadline loomed, causing civilian aircraft to scramble into unexpected diversions midflight.
But there was no sign of military intervention Monday, and ECOWAS simply said it would hold another meeting Thursday.
Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, senior analyst for the Sahel with the International Crisis Group, said the threat of military intervention had receded but not vanished.
“All these presidents say if the junta succeeds, the domino effect might continue to other countries,” he said. “They are very nervous about this.”
ECOWAS is hoping that some of the financial sanctions imposed on Niger will bite harder, he said. The landlocked nation’s borders have been closed, and its southern neighbor Nigeria — which supplies 75 percent of Niger’s electricity — has shut off power. The regional bank has suspended Nigerien banks, cutting off the nation’s access to credit. The cost of living has skyrocketed.
Bazoum’s strongest supporters among ECOWAS include Nigeria, Senegal, Benin and Ivory Coast. He is also backed by former colonial power France and the United States, which each have troops in the country. The new rulers have said French troops must leave but have been silent on military relations with the United States, which has two key bases in Niger used to monitor militant activity in the Sahel and the war in Sudan.
The United States paused more than $100 million in financial assistance to the Nigerien government last week, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.
U.S. seeks to balance security and human rights in turbulent West Africa
Mali and Burkina Faso, whose leaders also recently seized power in coups, are backing the junta and have strong Russian support. After ECOWAS issued its ultimatum, Mali and Burkina Faso said they would treat any military intervention as an act of war, and Niger appealed to Russia’s Wagner Group for help, according to media reports.
Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries, and it has a booming population. It mines uranium — although production has declined by about half over the past decade — and it was hoping to boost oil production from its current output of about 20,000 barrels per day to about 110,000 barrels using a pipeline under construction to Benin.
For more than a decade, the nation has been ravaged by an Islamist insurgency. But after U.S. and French forces spent years training elite military units, militant activity dipped — the first six months of 2023 were the most peaceful since 2018, said J. Peter Pham, the former U.S. envoy to the Sahel. Most of those units were out on the front lines when the coup occurred, he said.
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Pham said officials would now be searching for a way to de-escalate the risk of conflict without losing too much face. Ultimately, the junta would need a way to pay its soldiers, and the West needs a partner in the region and to keep out Wagner, he said. Inviting in Russian mercenaries should be a “red line” for the junta, he said.
The first step, he said, would be freeing Bazoum and his officials. Then Washington might be able to find a way to speak to the new leaders, continue development support and arrange some sort of cooperation — such as intelligence-sharing — that would stop short of direct military support for coup leaders, he said.
“The return to democracy should not be delayed: Niger had elections less than two years ago in which 70 percent of registered voters took part under much more challenging security conditions,” he said. “There is no excuse to delay the transition now when violence is low.”
