Niger's military has been holding the country's ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, since last month in the seventh coup to hit Africa's Sahel region in recent years, with General Abdourahamane Tiani, head of the powerful presidential guard, declaring himself leader.
On July 30, the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the coup leaders a week to return power to the country's civilian authorities or face consequences, including the use of force. In its first official reaction following the expiry of the deadline, the bloc said it had agreed to hold a summit meeting to discuss how to proceed.
ECOWAS leaders called for forging ahead with a regional standby force to restore constitutional order in the coup-hit country and agreed on ordering the “activation” and the “deployment” of a regional standby force. However, it is not yet clear what this would entail.
In the meantime, Niger's junta has announced that France of planning military intervention to return the deposed president to power.
France has responded to the junta's accusation about planning a military intervention in the country, with Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna denying the charges and adding that it was still "possible" to restore Bazoum to power.
Despite denying any intention to invade Niger, Paris has vowed to resort to "immediate and uncompromising" action if French citizens or interests were attacked.
The threat was verbalized by French President Emmanuel Macron after thousands of supporters of Niger's military marched through the streets of the capital Niamey and gathered outside the French embassy, denouncing the country's former colonial power and storming its diplomatic mission.
To know more about the issue, we reached out to Richard Anderson Falk, American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University.
Following is the text of our interview with him:
What was the destructive colonial role of France in West African countries?
As elsewhere, but perhaps more crudely and more deeply, France dominated West African countries politically and ruthlessly exploited them economically. France more than other European colonial powers sought to replace the indigenous culture, including its language and cuisine, with what it claimed to be superior, which was, of course, French culture. In Africa in particular France also created a set of conditions that made the society incapable of stable and equitable governance if and when independence was gained. As a result, the residue of colonialism remained after independent statehood was formally achieved.
It seems that France has kept its colonial role in the regional countries even after these countries gained their independence. What are the tactics that Paris uses to keep its influence in these countries?
The colonial era failed to educate and train an indigenous elite capable of running these West African countries without French assistance in the security and economic policy spheres. When independence was granted the French negotiated a series of self-serving arrangements that kept its troops in the country and its favorable and highly profitable relation to the natural resources of each of the West African countries that had been its former colonies. Internal conditions prevailed in these countries that resulted in a new unspoken realist that I call ‘colonialism after colonialism.’ It is a way of underscoring the point that the structures of control and exploitation have persisted long after independent statehood was achieved in the early 1960s but without the stigma of ‘colonialism.’ This process is greatly facilitated by the cooption and corruption of local elites that give a nationalist veneer to this reality of ‘stunted decolonization.’
What is the political, economic and military importance of Niger for France? Do you think that France will be able to return to the African country?
French interests, also reinforced by Western interests, particularly by the U.S., are especially important in Niger. To begin with, as a spillover from the NATO regime-changing intervention in Libya, an alleged jihadist presence in the country became a target in the counterterrorist agenda of the Global North and a pretext for the deployment of Western military forces. For France in particular, Niger was a major source of uranium for its nuclear power facilities, as well as gold, both paid for at prices well below market values. Niger is also seen as important to keep aligned to and dependent upon the West in its multi-dimensional struggle with Russia and China for geopolitical primacy in the world. Africa has become an arena of this unfolding rivalry that has risen to the surface of global awareness in the course of the Ukraine War.
Some African countries are ready to wage war against Niger, in fact, to the benefit of France despite the fact that they themselves have been suffering from France colonialism. Why?
On the basis of available information, it is difficult to respond convincingly, especially as various African countries have distinct national motivations in such a complex situation. It seems that many African countries are worried about their own stability, and do not want to create another precedent of a successful West African coup. In addition, corrupted elites are fearful of their own vulnerability resulting from the spread of these expressions of anti-Western radicalism. Part of the reality of colonialism after colonialism are habits of dependence that are difficult to break, especially if intertwined with corrupting incentives and threats to collaborating national elites.
There are also issues arising from non-African interventions by external actors if Africa does not act to reverse the outcome of the coup. There is a growing fear that Africa could become a battleground for the geopolitical rivalry involving the U.S., Russia, and China if a second cold war continues to unfold. The Ukraine War has raised concerns about the dangers of nuclear war that seem to be giving rise to temptations to shift armed struggles to the Global South as was the case in the Cold War.
Do you think that war will be waged in the region?
It is hard to tell and partly depends on how much pressure is exerted by the U.S. and Europe. And partly about how worried other African governments are about the danger of coups in their own country. Neighboring Nigeria that is leading the effort to reverse the outcome in Niger is key to whether a diplomatic compromise can be negotiated, or a war erupts. A central issue is whether foreign troops will be allowed to remain in Niger. A major outcome of the earlier similar recent coups in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea all were provoked by the presence of foreign troops of France and the U.S. Each of these coups resulted in their removal. At present, there are French, U.S. and Italian bases and detachments of armed personnel in Niger. It will be a victory for the national military that launched this latest coup if these foreign forces are removed, and a humiliating setback if they are allowed to stay. The deposed President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoumi, is lauded in the West as the first democratically elected president in the country and condemned by the coup leadership as massively corrupt and coopted. There is no doubt that war in Niger would be a tragedy for the country and the region, with an already impoverished population and overall low rankings for these Sahel West African countries on the Human Development Index.
In case of any war, what will be Russia’s reaction as you know many Russian Wagner forces are stationed there?
The Wagner Group’s role and response are part of the overall uncertainty. So far Russia’s official position has in general supported the coup and opposed intervention from without. Whether the Wagner Group has sufficient capabilities to alter the relation of forces in Niger or West Africa is unknown. There is a danger of a proxy war, which would prolong the combat and raise the stakes of winning and losing, with dire consequences for the people of Niger, and elsewhere in the region. It needs to be stressed that these countries have some of the highest proportions of people living in extreme poverty even without the added deprivations that would result from warfare.
Whether the coup in Niger represents the last stage of decolonization or is just one more chapter in the unnarrated story of colonialism after colonialism remains to be seen.
Interview by Zahra Mirzafarjouyan