Eleven West African nations have agreed to commit troops to a military deployment aimed at restoring Niger’s democratically elected president following last month’s coup, an official for the regional bloc said Friday after a defense ministers meeting.
Why did the coup occur? Do the citizens of Niger support the coup?
It has been reported that the Wagner group (Russia) supported the coup in some way. Russia does have an interest in getting African nations to support them instead of the West, so it would make sense.
While Russia has an interest in weakening the regional power, France, Wagner doesn’t appear to be involved.
The ousted President was going to fire the chief of the military and the Chief moved first.
If the citizens supported getting the president out, why not vote for it? Coups in democracies are almost always the instrument of those who cannot win elections.
Here is a pretty good breakdown about the situation.