Wagner, ISIS, and al-Qaeda:If Niger Falls, Sahel Collapses

NIAMEY — On the 63rd anniversary of the independence day of Niger on Thursday, the capital city Niamey saw crowds of protestors backing last week's coup with giant Russian flags and anti-France slogans. 

The presidential Guard in Niger staged a coup on the 26th of July and detained President Mohamed Bazoum by forming a military junta called the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP) with senior officials from various branches of the defense and security forces. The junta cited the “continually deteriorating security situation” as a core justification for the coup, although the data on attacks shows security has actually been improving.

Although Russia has criticized the coup, saying the situation was "cause for serious concern," Wagner's Yevgeny Prigozhin hailed the coup and offered services from Wagner fighters, saying "What happened in Niger is nothing more than the struggle of the people of Niger against colonizers, who tried to impose their own rules of life.”

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has played a crucial role in managing coup attempts in West Africa, has set Aug 6, this Sunday, as a deadline for the Nigerien junta to step aside and restore democracy. Should they not comply, they shall be met with a set of sanctions starting with cutting economic transactions, banning imports and exports, cutting electricity supply, and as a last resort, the use of force. 

The Nigerien junta was also met with support from military juntas in power in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, who issued a warning that an intervention from ECOWAS in Niger would constitute a declaration of war against their two countries, further escalating the risk of a wider international conflict across the Sahel.  

"If Niger falls, the whole Sahel will collapse. There will be a totally destabilized zone with Wagner on one side, and ISIS and al-Qaeda on the other will be controlling the situation. The whole world will be destabilized. If you give them the whole Sahel, just imagine what will happen on migration, on the security in Europe and the whole world." says Kiari Liman-Tinguiri, Niger’s ambassador in Washington.

Click to watch the trailer for "Beasts of No Nation" by Cary Fukunaga, which follows the story of a young boy who becomes a child soldier during a civil war and coup d'état in West Africa.

"Timbuktu" by Abderrahmane Sissako, portrays the impact of radical Islamist groups on the lives of people in a desert town in West Africa.