NIGER: The Ex-UN Peacekeeper Who Seized Power
General Abdourahmane Tiani (also referred to as Abdourahmane Tchiani and Omar Tchiani) gives a televised address to the nation of Niger explaining the reasons behind the coup, July 28, 2023. President Mohamed Bazoum is held captive by his own guards
Once involved in peacekeeping efforts in war-torn countries, General Abdourahmane Tchiani has now sparked a major crisis in West Africa by staging a coup in Niger.
Low profile and so far little known outside his immediate circle, he was the commander of Niger’s presidential guard until he emerged from the shadows to overthrow the man he was meant to protect, President Mohamed Bazoum.
General Tchiani declared himself head of the National Council for the Protection of the Fatherland, the military junta set up after he seized power on July 26.
Meanwhile, his former boss languishes under house arrest. Mr. Bazoum has had sporadic telephone contact with international leaders, but otherwise he is isolated.
General Tchiani has so far rejected all suggestions for a compromise. He has kept most international envoys at bay, but on Wednesday gave an audience with ex-governor of Nigeria’s central bank and former emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi.
US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who visited Niger on Monday, was unable to get an audience with the 62-year-old general.
A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) got no further than the airport.
A planned second joint mission by Ecowas, African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) envoys, scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed after the junta said it was not the right time to meet them.
General Tchiani certainly lives up to his reputation as stubborn and taciturn.
He was not present at the big meeting organized by the junta in Niamey, Niger’s capital, on Sunday. He has appeared on TV just three times since the coup and has spoken twice – once to present himself as Niger’s new leader and once to deliver an Independence Day speech.
That may be partly because even he doesn’t really know where this crisis is going.
Will Ecowas, whose protocol for good governance and democracy Niger has signed, actually launch a military intervention, as it has threatened?
Or will the West African bloc wait for sanctions to gradually do their job of ramping up pressure on the junta, especially as there is significant political opposition to the military option in Nigeria and some other Ecowas states?General Tchiani has left other junta leaders to rally public support for the coup
The bloc’s current chairman, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, has now reiterated his preference for the diplomatic route and a further indication of how he and his colleagues think may emerge after their latest summit in Abuja on Thursday.
Faced with these uncertainties, and encouraged by the success of fellow coup leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea in weathering regional pressures, it seems that General Tchiani has decided for now to resign and play the long game.
Its junta has announced the appointment of a prime minister, former finance minister and African Development Bank official Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeini, signaling its ambitions to bring about a long-term political transition.
Some analysts have questioned whether the overthrow of Mr Bazoum, who belongs to the minority Arab community, could lead to ethnic tensions in Niger. However, a strong sense of cross-cultural cohesion and national identity has always been a distinguishing force of modern Niger.
A former Tuareg rebel and senior minister, Rhissa ag Boula, has now launched a campaign to get Mr Bazoum back in office, presenting it in strong national terms. And so far there is no sign of the junta venturing on a divisive sectarian path.
However, General Tchiani is not above taking big risks of a different kind. The decision to detain Mr. Bazoum and stage the coup was in itself a high-stakes gamble. If it failed, the general himself would now be in a prison cell.
And the decisions to publicly denounce longstanding defense deals with former colonial power France and, reportedly enlist the help of the controversial Russian mercenary group Wagner, would certainly further antagonize Ecowas and Western governments, even if they play well with anti-Bazoum mobs in Niamey.
Over the course of his nearly 40-year career, General Tchiani has been trained at military academies in Senegal, France, Morocco, Mali and the US.
He also submitted:
UN peacekeeping operations in Ivory Coast, the Sudanese region of Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo
An ECOWAS force in Ivory Coast and
The Multinational Joint Task Force in which troops from Niger, Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon are working together in the campaign against the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
So it’s ironic that he’s now risking a military confrontation with Ecowas by ignoring his ultimatum to return power to Mr. Bazoum.
General Tchiani has also been posted to a series of command posts in Niger itself, although not in the campaign against the jihadist groups that now pose such a major threat to his own country and neighboring Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin in the central Sahel.
But two things stand out in his long military career.
Until his promotion to assume the Presidential Guard in 2011, he had not held senior-level command positions either abroad or at home that required him to work closely with civilian government leaders and international partners in shaping strategy and addressing threats. difficult political, social and diplomatic problems. compromises.
The 62-year-old has always been a “soldier soldier”, assigned to specific military duties rather than the broader defense and security picture.
Even after being placed in charge of the Presidential Guard by Mr. Bazoum’s predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou, he kept his opinions to himself and spoke little.
He was not part of the wider public or political discussion about how best to deal with the jihadist violence and occasional local intercommunal tensions that have led to such challenges in recent years.Many supporters of the junta have taken a pro-Russia and an anti-France stance
Closely trusted but rarely heard of, he seems to have been an intensely private figure, in some ways not well known even to the presidents who entrusted themselves to his patronage.
His relations with Mr Bazoum, a longtime ally of Mr Issoufou, were known to be more distant and in recent weeks there have been rumors that the president was preparing to force him into retirement.
Perhaps personal resentments had built up, unspoken but still powerful.
Resigning from his post, even at a fairly normal retirement age, would certainly have been a painful blow to a man who has gradually climbed the promotion ladder over four decades after starting out as a regular soldier.
General Tchiani is from the majority Hausa ethnic group and hails from the Tillabéri region, a traditional army recruiting area.
Yet he does not have the typical officer background or clear political connections. He had to work his way up from the base.
Mr. Bazoum is also someone who came from a fairly humble background and then gradually climbed the educational and career ladder, in his case at university and then as a high school teacher and trade unionist, before entering politics in the early 1990s.
But oddly enough, General Tchiani never really established a comfortable working relationship with Mr. Bazoum – while he seems to get along more easily with Mr. Issoufou.
Now, after so many years out of the public eye, General Tchiani is of course on a crash course in political and diplomatic crisis management.
General Tchiani is from the majority Hausa ethnic group and hails from the Tillabéri region, a traditional army recruiting area.
Yet he does not have the typical officer background or clear political connections. He had to work his way up from the base.
Mr. Bazoum is also someone who came from a fairly humble background and then gradually climbed the educational and career ladder, in his case at university and then as a high school teacher and trade unionist, before entering politics in the early 1990s.
But oddly enough, General Tchiani never really established a comfortable working relationship with Mr. Bazoum – while he seems to get along more easily with Mr. Issoufou.
Now, after so many years out of the public eye, General Tchiani is of course on a crash course in political and diplomatic crisis management.
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