Niger coup: EU suspends security and financial cooperation

The European Union (EU) has suspended its financial support and cooperation on security with Niger following the coup on Wednesday (26 July).

The suspension comes with immediate effect the EU's senior diplomat said on Saturday (29 July), after the US declared its "unflagging support" for ousted president Mohamed Bazoum.

The EU announcement came as the African Union issued a 15-day ultimatum to those involved in seizing power, to return to barracks and restore the democratic constitution and suspended institutions.

"In addition to the immediate cessation of budget support, all cooperation actions in the domain of security are suspended indefinitely with immediate effect," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.

“The European Union does not recognise and will not recognise the authorities from the putsch in Niger,” Borrell added, saying Mohamed Bazoum “remains the only legitimate president of Niger” and called for his immediate release.

Borrell said the EU was ready to support future decisions taken by West Africa’s regional bloc, “including the adoption of sanctions”.

The head of the presidential guards unit Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani declared himself Niger's new leader on Friday (28 July) after stating security, economic woes and corruption led him to seize power.

Niger has received a lot of Western aid, including from the EU and the US, as an aid to fight against jihadist insurgencies that have been destabilising the wider Sahel region.

The EU allocated €503m (£432m) from its budget to improve governance, education and sustainable growth in Niger between 2021 and 2024, according to its website.

The coup is the latest in a series in West Africa in which the military has taken power of the country following on from Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

Niger's neighbours, Burkina Faso and Mali have both pivoted towards Russia since their own coups.

On Friday evening US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned those detaining Mr Bazoum - Niger's first elected leader to succeed another since independence in 1960 - that "hundreds of millions of dollars of assistance" was at risk.

However, the leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary group has reportedly described the coup as a triumph.

"What happened in Niger is nothing other than the struggle of the people of Niger with their colonisers," Yevgeny Prigozhin was quoted as saying on a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel.

"With colonisers who are trying to foist their rules of life on them and their conditions and keep them in the state that Africa was in hundreds of years ago."

He added: "Today this is effectively gaining their independence."

Wagner is believed to have thousands of fighters in countries including the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali, where it has lucrative business interests but also bolsters Russia's diplomatic and economic relations.

Wagner fighters have been accused of widespread human rights abuses in several African countries.