Niger Junta Says It Is Regaining Control After Coup Attempt
Niger’s military government said it was regaining control after an attempted coup in Niamey, with gunfire and explosions reported around the airport, the presidential palace perimeter and a military base, and state television briefly cut. The junta of General Abdourahamane Tiani — itself installed by the 2023 coup — described a mutiny being put down; no casualty figures have been published. The situation remained fluid into the night.
Coups against coup regimes are the Sahel’s recursion problem: the junta that overthrew President Bazoum promising security now faces the same barracks arithmetic it once exploited, in a country where jihadist insurgency, economic isolation and the pivot to Moscow have each made the soldiers’ lot worse rather than better. The targets — airport, palace, Base 101 — suggest an organised attempt rather than a pay mutiny, and the information blackout cuts both ways: juntas that control the story usually survived it. Whether Wagner’s successors helped put it down will be the detail to watch for. The Alliance of Sahel States’ strongmen will be checking their own garrisons tonight. Watch who is purged in the coming days — purge lists are coup post-mortems.