Niger: President Mohamed Bazoum ousted from power in military coup
On July 26, 2023, soldiers in Niger appeared on national television announcing that President Mohamed Bazoum has been removed from power after being detained in the presidential palace as part of a coup. This military takeover marks the ninth coup in the West and Central Africa region in the last decade.
An Army spokesman, Colonel Amadou Abdramane, declared the West African country’s borders were closed, a nationwide curfew from 22:00 until 05:00 in the morning was declared and all government institutions in the country are suspended.
“We, the defense and security forces… have decided to put an end to the regime you know. This follows the continuing deterioration of the security situation, and poor economic and social governance,” Col Abdramane read from a statement on the broadcast.
The Sahel region is gaining the reputation as the “coup belt”. For a summary of the countries that have experienced power grabs, please see the Reuters article here.
However, according to the BBC Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou has declared himself the head of state and called on all democrats to “make this adventure fail”.
Land-locked Niger, like many of its West African neighbours are experiencing frustrations over the government’s failures to prevent violent attacks on towns and villages from jihadist groups active in the Sahel. West Africa recorded over 1,800 terrorist attacks in the first six months of the year resulting in nearly 4,600 deaths with dire humanitarian consequences AP News reports.
Following the coup of democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum, it is unclear what the church in Niger will experience.
From Open Doors workers in the area
“The country is in tension now. There are mixed feelings. There is some kind of mobilization on social media for people to protest against this coup, that is, for those who want the president to come back to power. Yet there are yet others who support the military,” one field partner in Niger shared.
“We are not sure how the current situation will affect the church in Niger, because we don’t know how this new government feels about Western support, especially France.”
During the broadcast the soldiers warned against any foreign intervention. Last year France moved its troops to Niger from Mali after the relationship between authorities fell out of step. Similarly French forces also evacuated from Burkina Faso.
Our field partner expressed his concern over the future of the Church in Niger: “We also don’t know whether this military junta will be friendly with the church, given that there are many Muslims within the army who are from the Izala Movement (Sunni) and have extremist views. If they are among this new junta, then persecution for the Church may well be on the rise.”
“This possibility of demonstrations will probably bring a lot of tension to the people because tomorrow is Friday and Muslims will gather for prayer and afterwards they will start the protest against foreign involvement currently present in the country. There is great fear among Christians now, because nobody knows what is going to happen during these protest. They did something like this some years back, which ended up in burning Churches and Christian properties such as shops and houses. Therefore, there is a need for prayer regarding tomorrow’s demonstration”.
Pray
“Please pray for stability in the country because there are a lot of rumours on social media. Also pray for the Church in Niger, and let this new regime favour the Church in Niger.” -An Open Doors field worker
Niger is number 28 on the 2023 World Watch List. It remains to be seen how the coup will affect the church – pray that they will be given strength and courage to endure whatever comes next.
The coup is in part a response to the government’s failure to address rising extremist violence in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. This jihadist activity is among the more worrying persecution trends in the last few years. Pray that this trend lessens and that the church is kept secure.
