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DAKAR, Senegal — Ousmane Hassan, a 35-year-old Nigerien father of two, wonders when his savings will run out.
Hassan said his business, which involves transporting goods from neighboring Benin, has dried up because of sanctions imposed on Niger after the July 26 military coup that ousted the elected leader, President Mohamed Bazoum. And like people across this impoverished West African country, Hassan has watched in recent weeks as the price of food at the market increased and the country’s power supply plummeted.
“I want anything that can help the situation return to normal,” Hassan said in an interview in Niamey, the Nigerien capital, adding that his money in the bank won’t last much longer and that he worries about feeding his young daughter and son.
Roughly one month after military officers seized power, there is little obvious consensus within Niger about whether to support the coup leaders or Bazoum, who is being held captive by the military.
What is clear is the toll of the crisis. Electricity shortages that followed Nigeria’s decision to shut off its supply of power to Niger in an effort to pressure coup-makers have disrupted small businesses and caused food spoilage. Border closures have crippled businesses like Hassan’s and jeopardized the delivery of humanitarian assistance, including nutritional supplements for children.
Civic leaders, activists and others in Niamey said in interviews that as time passes, the humanitarian situation is worsening.
Even before the current crisis, about 13 percent of the population — or 3.3 million people — was considered food-insecure, according to the International Rescue Committee. Then, in response to the coup, the regional bloc of countries known as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced sanctions, and the price of rice increased by 17 percent in the week that followed, the IRC said.
“By some estimates, supplies in the country at the time of the coup were sufficient for two to three months of humanitarian response,” the IRC’s Niger country director, Paolo Cernuschi, said in a statement. “With supply chains requiring from a few weeks to a couple of months to replenish stocks, we are fast approaching the point where shortages will be inevitable.”
As Niger’s crisis drags on, its West African neighbors are tested
In the small shop where Abbas Daouda used to make a good living, he hurried on a recent afternoon to grind maize and millet before electricity outages cut his workday short. Daouda, who said he cannot afford to buy a generator, has seen his profit shrivel from the equivalent of $16 a day to closer to about $8. He said he still has enough food to feed his family but sometimes skips meals himself, including lunch that day.
“I hope that the bosses up there will find an agreement,” he said, referring to the country’s senior figures.
Barmou Sahabi, a 54-year-old farmer outside Niamey, said the price of a bag of rice has increased from about $23 to $28 in recent weeks. He said that the electricity shortages that have followed Nigeria’s cutting of power to Niger have made charging cellphones difficult and that electric fans can no longer be used to chase away the mosquitoes that proliferate during the rainy season.
Now, Niger also faces the prospect of a military intervention by its neighbors, which want the restoration of constitutional order in the country. The group, led by Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has declared the putsch in Niger a red line after coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.
ECOWAS said earlier this month that the bloc remained open to dialogue with the coup leaders but that it also has set an undisclosed “D-Day” for intervention if diplomacy does not succeed. Talks between ECOWAS and the military junta, led by Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, appear to have largely stalled. Tchiani was head of Niger’s presidential guard when he ousted Bazoum.
Sahabi, the farmer, said the threat of a military intervention has made his future uncertain. “We are afraid,” he said.
Laoual Sayabou, the coordinator of a network of human rights groups in Niamey, said that the sanctions had been severe and had deeply affected the lives of citizens but that many are still “continuing to fight to see their president and the institutions in which they had confidence freed.”
“The Nigerien people elected President Bazoum, and it is him that we recognize,” said Sayabou, adding that support for the coup has been fueled by opportunists and propaganda targeting young people.
Community leaders say they also worry about a shrinking of the space for dissent and criticism of the junta. In Niamey, professors who signed a letter lambasting their union for supporting the coup without consulting its members were questioned Wednesday by police and then demoted from their positions.
“I fear for my country,” said one of the professors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns. “We are in a very dangerous place.”
A reporter in Niamey whose name The Washington Post is withholding for the person’s safety contributed to this report.
