Let Africa sink.
L
“Africa wins again.”
So, is the yellowcake still moving?
Who is Omar Tchiani, the suspected brain behind Niger coup?
The general has been in charge of the presidential guards since 2015 and was a close ally of former President Issoufou.
Tchiani is from Niger's western region of Tillaberi, a main recruitment area for the army.
He has been heading the presidential guards since 2015 and was a close ally of former President Mahamadou Issoufou – the politician who led the country until 2021.
Ironically, he led the unit that blocked an attempted coup in the country in March 2021, when a military unit tried to seize the presidential palace days before Bazoum who had just been elected, was due to be sworn in.
The motivations behind Tchiani spearheading the coup remain unclear but there were rumours that the deposed president wanted to dismiss him only a few days ago, Paul Melly, Niger expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera.
There was also speculation that this may have been because of the general's age, who is 62, or suspected discontent among some elements of the army including within the presidential guards. Al Jazeera could not independently verify these speculations.
Another possible reason, Melly noted, is that Bazoum wanted “to mark himself out as his own man” from Issoufou’s presidency by changing the composition of the presidential guards, including replacing Tchiani.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/27/who-is-omar-tchiani-the-suspected-brain-behind-niger-coup
They are just following the new US policy.
Niger has the misfortune of being oil and mineral-rich, and so constantly manipulated by foreign-power intel and military operations, in part by their funding of jihadis.
Change the name from Mohamed Bazoum to Joe Biden and you got the same right here in the US.