NOURNEWS- The US president is calling for Niger’s military leaders, some of them who has been trained by the US military, to release democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted last week in a coup. Biden has ordered the evacuation of most US diplomats from the country, following an attack on the French Embassy on Sunday in Niger’s capital of Niamey. And several West African states are threatening to intervene and use military force by the weekend if Bazoum isn’t reinstated, Senegal being the latest country to join the calls to restore the president.
Niger is the fourth West African state to undergo a coup since 2020. Yet even as the Nigerien military brass took steps to normalize the coup, with Gen. Salifou Mody heading to Mali on Wednesday, some things seemed like business as usual in the West. On Thursday, Biden sent out what appeared to be a mostly precooked statement, congratulating Niger on the 63rd anniversary of its independence from France but fearing a “grave challenge to its democracy.” But the US administration stopped well short of calling the military overthrow a coup, which would force the Biden administration to cut military aid to the country.
For now, at least 1,100 US soldiers and airmen based in the country, where the US is building a large drone base, are staying put but are restricted to their bases. Mody’s visit to Mali, a country that has openly spurned UN peacekeepers and welcomed a large presence of mercenaries with Russia’s Wagner Group, could be a sign that Niamey, once thought to be the linchpin of the US counterterrorism strategy in West Africa against the Islamic State and al Qaeda’s regional franchises, could also be falling into Moscow’s arms. And the coup leaders have used the diplomatic departures to challenge the West: Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who is calling himself the head of a self-declared transitional government after last week’s military coup, said Wednesday that the French have “no objective reason to leave Niger,” referring to the evacuation of French citizens ordered by President Emmanuel Macron.
But while the president Biden congratulated Niger’s 63rd anniversary of its independence from France colonization, ECOWAS’s threat for taking military action against Niger has gained the support of Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the EU for this bloc’s Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the government of France. The West is condemning the coup and at first, they even tried to blame Russia for the coup as A Ukrainian presidential adviser on Tuesday accused Russia of being behind the ongoing coup in the West African country of Niger. “It is now absolutely clear that #Russia is behind the so-called ‘military coup’ in #Niger. It is a standard Russian tactic: to divert attention, seize the moment and expand the conflict,” Mykhailo Podolyak said in a statement posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Western officials are quick to blame other countries for the brewing crises in the world, but they fail to mention their own doings that have led to these problems when riding their high horses of morality, human right and democracy.
The main reason behind the Western countries’ stance against the Niger military coup is not democracy, nor Freedom of speech, after the coup, Niger coup leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani, despite being EU's largest supplier of uranium, has halted any uranium and gold export to France.
France derives about 70 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy, more than any other country. France is also the world's largest net exporter of nuclear energy, bringing in more than €3 billion per year, and 2 out of 3 light bulbs of French households is using the nuclear energy while the people of Niger are facing massive blackouts. How is the West’s strategy for imposing sanctions and US’s Unitarianism is any different from neo colonization?
Now in a diplomatic pickle, Biden has been left with little but words. “In this critical moment, the United States stands with the people of Niger to honor our decades-long partnership rooted in shared democratic values and support for civilian-led governance,” Biden said in his statement. “The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair elections—and that must be respected.” Since Washington is offering no carrots and wielding no stick, the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank, assessed that the coup leaders were unlikely to bow to Western pressure to back down.
For now, the Economic Community of West African States has imposed sanctions on Niger and set a Sunday deadline for the coup leaders to back off and restore the nation’s constitution—or face military intervention. But in the meantime, Western leaders are worried that Russia is still on the move in the region. “Russia has been fueling these coups [in Africa] with its false propaganda and profiting from … these military regimes with its private militias that plunder the wealth of the region,” Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, said this week without mentioning the EU’s dependence on Niger’s minerals such as uranium and gold.
With developments such as, The War in Ukraine, the obvious struggle of NATO against Russia and their double standards in the war, the rising tension in East Asia over NATO’s strategy to strengthen its presence in the region, West Asia becoming united without any foreign country interference while Tehran and Riyadh progress in their relations, Syria joining the Arab League and with BRICS gaining popularity while more than 50 country request to join this group, and the Niger coup and stance against the France, all are a sign that the current world order is changing and the Empire of lies of the West is crumbling over its head.
BY: Homayoun Barkhor
NOURNEWS