West Africa is believed to be facing its worst military takeovers in recent years with the latest being in Niger where members of the Presidential Guard overthrew and detained President Mohamed Bazoum.
Soldiers claimed to have overthrown the Niger Government on Thursday, July 26, following a coup d’état in the fragile state, after members of the Presidential Guard detained President Mohamed Bazoum.
General Abdourahamane Tchiani-also known as Omar Tchiani-the Chief of Niger’s Presidential Guard, declared himself leader as the country’s elected President, Mohamed Bazoum who has been held by the military since the coup took place last week.
Exactly a week since Presidential Guards sized power in Niger, latest reports from neighboring Sierra Leone say several persons including senior military officers have been arrested within the Sierra Leone military suspected to be planning violent attacks on citizens.
In a police statement issued late Tuesday, August 1, the country’s Joint Security forces stated that they have been following ‘intelligence regarding the activities of certain individuals, including Senior Military officers, working to undermine the peace and tranquility of the state’.
“In that regard, several arrests have been made and the suspects are assisting the police with the investigations,” the Joint Security statement read.
The statement furthered that the suspects’ plan was using peaceful protests scheduled for next week as a guide to unleashing violent attacks against state institutions and peaceful citizens.
On August 10, 2022, economic and political protests in the capital Freetown, and other cities spiraled into deadly clashes. Twenty-seven civilians and six police officers died that day and in the several days that followed, according to official figures.
The West African nation held general elections on June 24. President Julius Maada Bio was reelected for a second term according to official results which the opposition disputes.
International observers noted statistical inconsistencies and condemned a lack of transparency in the ballot count after the election.
The opposition has refused to participate in local or national government with all but one MP boycotting parliament.
According to the Joint Security statement, the suspects were taken into custody to prevent President Julius Maada Bio’s democratically elected government from being toppled as it happened last week in Niger when President Mohamed Bazoum was removed by the junta.
Bazoum was ousted in a military coup and General Abdourahmane Tchiani, also known as Omar Tchiani took over the affairs of the country. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) led by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has given the coup leaders to reinstate Bazoum in one week.
While foreign nations like the United States and France have thrown their weight behind the ECOWAS, Mali and Burkina Faso pledged their support to the military regime in Niger.
Military coups were a regular occurrence in Africa in the decades after independence and there is concern they are starting to become more frequent. The takeover in Niger, led by soldiers belonging to the presidential guard, is just the latest in a string of coups that have taken place in recent years.
There were two in Burkina Faso in 2022 as well as failed coup attempts in Guinea Bissau, The Gambia and the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe. In 2021, there were six coup attempts in Africa, four of them successful.
Last year, a Senior African Union official, Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed concern about “the resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government.”
Last week, the Chief of Staff to the Liberian Armed Forces, Maj.-Gen. Prince Charles Johnson III proposed that the powers of Presidential Guards be limited in order to prevent more incidences of Coup d’état in the ECOWAS region.
He said member states must be mindful of how much control the military has, following the Coup d’état that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger on Wednesday.
“My second recommendation was the issue of Presidential guard or elite forces that has direct control over the commander in Chief. “So, if you look at what is happening even in Niger yesterday, it is the Presidential Guards. And look at our history in Liberia; we have seen the issue of Presidential Guards being misused.
