Niger President Mohamed Bazoum

1. How about President Mohamed Bazoum?

2. Biography Origin, Childhood, and Family

Mohamed Bazoum belongs to the Arab Oulad Souleymane ethnic group and is the youngest of six brothers and two sisters. Sources vary on his birthplace, mentioning N’Guigmi, N’Gourti, or Bilabrine, all towns in the Diffa region near Lake Chad. He was raised in a Muslim Sunni family.

3. Career and memoirs army Nijar

Mohamed Bazoum is a Nigerien politician and a founding member of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS-Tarayya), established in December 1990. He has been the President of the National Executive Committee (CEN) of the PNDS-Tarayya since Mahamadou Issoufou assumed the presidency of Niger in 2011.

In January 1998, during the presidency of Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, an alleged assassination plot was reported, and several members of the political opposition, including Hama Amadou and Mahamadou Issoufou, were accused. As Issoufou’s right-hand man, Mohamed Bazoum was arrested during that time.

He has been elected as a Member of Parliament four times (in 1993, 2004, 2011, and 2016) for the special constituency of Tesker (Zinder). He has also held several significant roles within the National Assembly, serving as Vice President and President of the parliamentary group of the PNDS-Tarayya. Additionally, he was a member of the transitional parliament from 2010 to 2011. During the post-National Conference democratic transition, Bazoum served as the Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, responsible for cooperation.

Mohamed Bazoum held various ministerial positions, including Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1996 and from 2011 to 2015. From 2015 to 2016, he was Minister of State at the Presidency, primarily tasked with organizing President Issoufou’s reelection.

From April 2016 to June 2020, Bazoum served as Minister of State, Minister of the Interior, Public Security, Decentralization, and Customary and Religious Affairs.

In the presidential election of 2020-2021, he became the candidate of the PNDS-Tarayya, aiming to succeed President Mahamadou Issoufou, who was constitutionally ineligible to run for a third term. Bazoum won the first round with 39.3% of the votes and proceeded to the second round, where he faced Mahamane Ousmane. He was declared the winner by the Constitutional Court on March 21, 2021.

On April 2, 2021, Mohamed Bazoum was sworn in as President for a five-year term. However, his presidency has been seen as “bicephalous” due to his close relationship with his predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou, and there have been challenges in breaking away from Issoufou’s influence during his tenure as President.

The army’s chief of staff claims its priority is to avoid destabilising the country. The group behind the coup, which is calling itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, says Niger is under curfew and all borders have been shut. Niger’s military leadership has declared its support for a coup against President Mohamed Bazoum, as all political activity in the country is reportedly suspended.

In a statement, the army’s chief of staff Abdou Sidikou Issa claimed its priority is to avoid destabilising the country. It said it needed to “preserve the physical integrity” of the president and his family and avoid “a deadly confrontation… that could create a bloodbath and affect the security of the population”.

It comes a day after members of Niger’s presidential guard surrounded the palace in the capital, Niamey, and detained President Bazoum. Appearing on national television in the West African nation, air force colonel, Amadou Abdramane, said all political activities have been suspended until further notice.

He previously claimed defence and security forces had decided to “put an end to the regime” because of a “deteriorating security situation and bad governance”.

He urged against any foreign intervention and said all borders had been closed, and a nationwide curfew put in place.

But the government said it will never accept their rule and has called for the population to reject it. President Bazoum said on the platform X: “The hard-won gains will be safeguarded, and all Nigeriens who love democracy and freedom will see to it.”

Foreign affairs minister Hassoumi Massoudou told news network France 24 on Thursday: “There was an attempted coup but of course we cannot accept it.

“We call on all Nigerien democratic patriots to stand up as one to say no to this factious action that tends to set us back decades and block the progress of our country.”

Mr Massoudou also called for the president’s unconditional release and said talks are ongoing.

Niger’s president being held inside palace Niger presidential guards are holding President Mohamed Bazoum inside the presidential palace in the capital, which has been blocked off by military vehicles since Wednesday morning, security sources said.

The movements have the semblance of four military takeovers that have hit neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020.

Ministries next to the palace have also been blocked off, and staff inside the palace have not been able to access their offices and presidency, security sources said.

The rest of Niamey appeared calm, with normal morning traffic on the road and full internet access, a Reuters reporter said.

Previous coups in Burkina Faso and Mali were spurred in part by frustrations over authorities’ failure to stem an Islamist insurgency blighting the Sahel region, which includes Niger. There was also a thwarted coup attempt in Niger in March 2021, when a military unit tried to seize the presidential palace days before Bazoum was due to be sworn in.

In 2021, the Guinean special forces arrested the president, Alpha Conde, and announced a nationwide curfew “until further notice” as well as the replacement of governors by the military.

“We have decided, after having taken the president, to dissolve the constitution,” said a uniformed officer flanked by soldiers toting assault rifles in a video sent to AFP.

The situation has been condemned by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Niger in March in an attempt to strengthen ties with the country.

He said he strongly supported the “democratically elected president” and that he was in close contact with officials in Africa and France.

Mr Bazoum was elected two years ago in the nation’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since its independence from France in 1960. He remains a key ally in efforts from the West to stabilise Africa’s Sahel region, which has been plagued by coups in recent years.

Both Mali and Burkina Faso have had four coups since 2020, and are being overrun by extremists linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

Earlier on Wednesday, a post from the X account of Niger’s presidency reported that members of the elite guard unit engaged in an “anti-Republican demonstration” and unsuccessfully tried to obtain support from other security forces.
It said Mr Bazoum and his family were doing well and Niger’s army and national guard “are ready to attack” if those involved in the action did not back down.

Hundreds of people also took to the streets in support for the president. They could be heard chanting “no coup d’etat” before multiple rounds of gunfire came from the palace, dispersing the protesters.

The US urged for Mr Bazoum’s release, while the European Union, United Nations, France and others condemned the uprising and said they were following the events with concern.

Meanwhile, Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, who was selected as the Economic Community of West African States Commission’s chairman this month, said leadership of the regional group would resist any attempt to unseat Niger’s government.

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