Free Republic

For now, the junta in Niger seems to be winning its standoff with its West African neighbors and the West. A Sunday deadline put forward by regional bloc ECOWAS for the generals to step aside and restore democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum to power elapsed, with little sign of countries like Nigeria or Senegal readying a military intervention. Instead, in a dramatic show of defiance, the coup leaders staged a massive rally at a stadium in the capital Niamey, where a top general warned against anyone threatening “Niger’s forward march,” while hundreds in the stands waved Nigerien and even some...