Niger's president has been detained, prompting fears of another coup

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

In the past few hours, presidential guards in the West African country of Niger detained that country's president, Mohamed Bazoum. They're holding him in his palace in the capital. If confirmed, it would be yet another attempted coup in the landlocked country and the latest in the region. NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu joins us from Lagos - near Lagos, Nigeria. Sorry about that, Emmanuel. How are you? Good morning.

EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So details are coming in quickly. What do we know at this point?

AKINWOTU: Yes, that's right. You know, this morning, soldiers from the presidential guard, they blocked the entrance to the presidency and other ministry buildings in Niamey, the capital. And they've effectively held President Mohamed Bazoum under arrest. You know, it's possible and likely even that he's inside. But at the moment, we don't have that confirmed. And this is obviously a really dramatic ongoing situation that we're following. But what I've also been struck by this morning, Leila, has been also the lack of activity. You know, the streets of Niamey are reportedly quite scarce but calm. We haven't, as of yet, seen any reports of violence or force, either from the Army or the National Guard. So we'll have to see how this unfolds. But so far, this attempted coup is not, as far as we know, being resisted militarily.

FADEL: Interesting.

AKINWOTU: The African Union - oh, apologies. The African Union and ECOWAS, they've already strongly condemned it. And that - you know, what will be at the forefront of diplomatic minds has been how this country, this large country, will and potentially could be destabilized by this.

FADEL: Well, what would it mean for the region?

AKINWOTU: Well, you know, the potential destabilization could be really grave. You know, Niger is a landlocked country in the Sahel, which is a region in West Africa that has suffered, you know, really immensely from the last decade of Islamist insurgency. You know, an untold number of people really have been killed, millions displaced and in desperate need. You know, it's an acute - one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. And Niger's just south of Libya, you know, wedged between Burkina Faso and Chad. You know, it's really in a very delicate region. And so the potential for any destabilization here is - you know, could lead to any number of consequences.

FADEL: What does this say about U.S. and other security efforts in Niger and really in the region?

AKINWOTU: Yeah, you know, that is going to come under intense focus now. You know, the U.S. and France have invested a lot in Niger. You know, the U.S. has a military presence there and France does too. Just a few months ago, actually, Secretary Blinken visited Niger and really talked up the fact that Niger had made democratic gains, had, you know, credentials that the U.S. was kind of proud to support. And obviously, you know, this is a country in a region that has been overwhelmed by terrorism and coups. You know, there have been successive coups in Burkina Faso and in Mali, you know, where we've seen the Wagner Group kind of step in. And so that's one of the things that Western countries will be looking at.

But, you know, yesterday, I was talking to a Nigerian analyst, and they told me that Niger has really positioned itself as the main Western ally. And that's a precarious situation for them because the majority of people in Niger are extremely critical of that. And the more the terrorism situation gets worse, the stronger - the more the legitimacy of these partnerships will diminish.

FADEL: NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu joining us from Lagos, Nigeria, thank you for your time.

AKINWOTU: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.