Follow us on social

Abdourahmane Tchiani, niger

Niger's accusation of Western chicanery hits close to home

The latest spat between Niamey's junta leader and Nigeria reflects growing bad blood and the loss of US and French influence in the region.

Analysis | Africa

As the year 2024 wound to a close, Niger’s junta leader, Brigade General Abdourahmane Tchiani, made accusations that France is using neighboring Nigeria as a staging ground to destabilize his country.

According to Tchiani, who came to power after overthrowing President Mohamed Bazoum in a military coup in July 2023, France offered money to Nigerian authorities “to establish a base in Borno State, with the sole aim of destabilizing our countries” — an apparent reference to other junta-led West African States, Mali and Burkina Faso, which recently split from ECOWAS.

The Nigerian government has refuted the allegation, describing it as false and baseless. It is not the first time Niger’s junta has made such accusations without offering concrete evidence. Nevertheless whether Tchiani was serious or merely uttering "hot air" to distract attention, the accusation exposes the tensions between the two countries at a time when they should be working together. Worse, it shows how suspicious the region is of Western powers and their interactions with ECOWAS and especially Nigeria.

Both Nigeria and Niger are close neighbors within the Lake Chad basin with historic and familial ties. Their mutual borders require joint patrol to ward off jihadist insurgency and banditry ravaging the local communities. It is for this reason that the spat has set off concerns in border communities prompting the Nigerian army to issue assurances earlier this month that the joint patrols would continue regardless of the row.

Together with Boko Haram, ISWAP (Islamic State–West Africa Province), and other widely-known jihadist groups, new security threats like Lakurawa have emerged in the last few years demonstrating the importance of regional cooperation. At the center of the row is an attack on the Niger-Benin crude oil pipeline in Gaya, Niger’s Dosso region on December 13 last year. The pipeline, a major economic asset for Niger which has large crude deposits, had been targeted in the past by anti-junta rebel groups.

Tension had been brewing between Nigeria and Niger since July 26, 2023 when Bazoum, the democratically-elected president of Niger, was overthrown in a coup by his presidential guards headed by Tchiani. Bazoum and his wife Hadiza remain in detention since then, despite global calls for their release.

While in power, Bazoum had been a loyal ally of Niger’s former colonial power, France, so his removal represented a blow to French interests in the country. Since he took power, General Tchiani has broken ties with France, prompting the former colonial power to withdraw its 1,500 troops from the country in December 2023.

The junta has subsequently sought military support from Moscow in its fight against decades-long jihadist insurgency, following on the heels of Mali and Burkina Faso juntas. In April last year, the first set of about 100 Russian advisers arrived in Niamey along with air defense systems.

Niamey’s grouse with Nigeria’s government stems primarily from the role its resident, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has played since the July 26 coup in his capacity as the chairman of the regional bloc, ECOWAS. Eager to earn his stripes as a strong leader amid a regional crisis, Tinubu had been instrumental in securing a strong ECOWAS reprimand of the coup.

Under Tinubu’s leadership, the bloc also imposed a no fly zone and closed borders amid other crippling economic sanctions slapped on Niger after initially threatening to invade the country unless the junta reinstated Bazoum.

Intended to halt the string of coups plaguing the region in recent times, ECOWAS’s tough line achieved the opposite — hardening the juntas who saw the regional body as an attack dog of French and American imperialism punishing their citizens for defending their sovereignty.

In July 2023, Niger, alongside Mali and Burkina Faso, split from ECOWAS to form a mutual defense pact called the Alliance of Sahel States.

Part of a general trend, the coup in Niger occurred in the context of the growing unpopularity of France among its former colonies who accuse the Elysee Palace of meddling in their internal affairs despite granting them formal independence since 1960. For example, several countries have followed on the heels of the Alliance of Sahel States in expelling French troops, the latest being Ivory Coast and Senegal.

Right now, France has lost over 80 percent of its military presence in the region with only a few troops left in Gabon and Djibouti.

Alongside his tough stance against the coup, the Nigerian president’s recent cozy relationship with France makes him an easy target in the highly polarized environment that has developed within the region since the July 26 coup. Last November, Tinubu, embarked on a widely-publicized state visit to the Palais de l'Élysée, the first of any Nigerian leader in three decades.

Apparently signaling a shift in France Africa strategy towards strengthening relations with Anglophone countries, the visit has added to the growing suspicion among AES member states of a Western plot to destabilize them using Nigeria as a launch pad.

It is instructive that the diplomatic row was taking place ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Niger is a uranium-rich country in West Africa — holding at least 5 percent of global uranium mining output. The country, one of the region’s poorest in GDP terms, is also a crucial transit hub for Europe-bound migrants. Furthermore, Niger was an important base for U.S. counterterrorism operations because of its vantage location. This ended by April last year when U..S troops were evicted by the junta from two military bases, Air Base 101 in Niamey and Air Base 201 in Agadez, where they had been running drone operations for counterterrorism surveillance since 2019.

It is not clear whether the new Trump administration will be able to negotiate with any African state within the region to host a U.S. military base considering the prevailing sentiment. The loss of this vital facility means that for the next foreseeable period, the U.S. may have to rely on its bases in Italy and Djibouti for counter surveillance operations — an unfortunate downgrade in strategic advantage in the region.


Top photo credit: General Abdourahmane Tchiani, who was declared as the new head of state of Niger by leaders of a coup, arrives to meet with ministers in Niamey, Niger July 28, 2023. REUTERS/Balima Boureima/
Analysis | Africa
 Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Sudan
Top image credit: Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan gestures to soldiers inside the presidential palace after the Sudanese army said it had taken control of the building, in the capital Khartoum, Sudan March 26, 2025. Sudan Transitional Sovereignty Council/Handout via REUTERS

Saudi Arabia chooses sides in Sudan's civil war

Africa

In the final days of Ramadan, before Mecca's Grand Mosque, Sudan's de facto president and army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan knelt in prayer beside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Al-Burhan had arrived in the kingdom just two days after his troops dealt a significant blow to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), recapturing the capital Khartoum after two years of civil war. Missing from the frame was the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Gulf power that has backed al-Burhan’s rivals in Sudan’s civil war with arms, mercenaries, and political cover.

The scene captured the essence of a deepening rift between Saudi Arabia and the UAE — once allies in reshaping the Arab world, now architects of competing visions for Sudan and the region.

For two years, Sudan has been enveloped in chaos. The conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed forces (SAF) and the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo "Hemedti," has inflicted immense suffering: an estimated 150,000 killed, allegations of mass atrocities staining both sides but particularly the RSF in Darfur, 12 million displaced, and over half the population facing acute food insecurity.

keep readingShow less
Donald Trump Massad Boulos
Top image credit: Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump is joined by Massad Boulos, who was recently named as a 'senior advisor to the President on Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs,' during a campaign stop at the Great Commoner restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S., on November 1, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

Trump tasks first time envoy with the most complex Africa conflict

Africa

As the war between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and allied militias against the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group continues, the Trump administration is reportedly tapping Massad Boulos as the State Department’s special envoy to the African Great Lakes region.

In this capacity, Boulos will be responsible for leading the American diplomatic effort to bring long-desired stability to the region and to end a conflict that has been raging in the eastern DRC for decades.

keep readingShow less
Sens. Paul and Merkley to Trump: Are we 'stumbling' into another war?
Top photo credit: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) (Gage Skidmore /Creative Commons) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) )( USDA photo by Preston Keres)

Sens. Paul and Merkley to Trump: Are we 'stumbling' into another war?

QiOSK

Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) have co-written a letter to the White House, demanding to know the administration’s strategy behind the now-18 days of airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

The letter calls into question the supposed intent of these strikes “to establish deterrence,” acknowledging that neither the Biden administration’s strikes in October 2023, nor the years-long bombing campaign by Saudi Arabia from 2014 to 2020, were successful in debilitating the military organization's military capabilities.

keep readingShow less

Trump transition

Latest

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.