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Niger’s new president, Mohamed Bazoum, on Friday lashed out at jihadists who have carried out devastating attacks against his country, accusing them of “war crimes” while taking command of the troubled nation.
His inauguration marked the first transition between presidents-elect in the six decades of Niger’s independence from France, a historic moment that has been widely praised.
But the Sahel country’s troubles came to the fore in the run-up to Friday’s ceremony, after a series of jihadist massacres and an alleged coup attempt just two days before the handover.
Niger. By (AFP) In his inauguration speech, Bazoum attacked “terrorist groups whose barbarity has exceeded all limits.”
These groups “carry out large-scale massacres of innocent civilians and, in doing so, commit real war crimes,” Bazoum declared.
Niger is being attacked by insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda or the so-called Islamic State (IS), who cross from Mali and Burkina Faso to the west, and Boko Haram, cross from Nigeria to the southeast.
Thousands of people have died and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
Since the beginning of this year alone, more than 300 people have died in three attacks in the west.
In its campaign to roll back the threat, Niger’s diplomatic efforts “will focus on Mali,” Bazoum said.
ISIS-linked insurgents are based in Menaka and Gao, in eastern and central Mali, respectively, Bazoum said.
Fighting them “will be very difficult as long as the State of Mali does not exercise full sovereignty over these regions,” he said.
“The current situation in Mali has a direct impact on the internal security of our country.”
Bazoum has previously ruled out any dialogue with the jihadists.
“We cannot conceive of any dialogue of any kind as long as there is a single Nigerian jihadist chief, a single jihadist base on our territory,” he said in a recent interview with French media RFI and France 24.
‘Cowardly act’
Bazoum, 61, is a former interior minister and right-hand man to outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou, 68, who voluntarily resigned after two five-year terms, a move Bazoum welcomed in his speech.
Bazoum won a second round for the presidency in February with 55.6 percent of the vote, according to official results contested by his opponent, Mahamane Ousmane.
Bazoum won a runoff for the presidency in February. By Issouf SANOGO (AFP / Archive) His inauguration has been presented as a democratic milestone in a country that has suffered four coups in its history, the most recent in February 2010.
Reminders of that volatility came in the early hours of Wednesday, when gunfire erupted near the presidency in the capital, Niamey.
The government announced that an “attempted coup d’état” had been thwarted, a “cowardly and regressive act that sought to threaten democracy and the rule of law.”
The alleged coup leader is an air force officer in charge of security at the Niamey air base and is being “actively sought,” a source from Niger’s security services told AFP.
Another security source said that “some members of the army” had been behind the coup, but the elite Presidential Guard had prevented them from approaching the presidential palace.
“Some arrests were made,” the source said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was among the concerned foreign leaders and called on the armed forces to “strictly comply with their constitutional obligations.”
Opposition protests erupted after the results of the February elections. By Issouf SANOGO (AFP / Archive) Bazoum, in his speech, said that the coup attempt was “very revealing of the state of mind of some of our compatriots … (who are) willing to compromise the future of our country.”
He said he expected “the end of the coup and insurrectionary temptations” in Niger.
Girls education
Several African heads of state or government attended the ceremonies at the Niamey International Conference Center, which was adorned in Niger’s national colors: green, white and orange.
Among the important figures was the President of Chad, Idriss Deby Itno, who recently sent 1,200 soldiers to Niger to help reinforce security, while France sent its foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian.
In addition to insecurity, Bazoum’s great task is to alleviate poverty in a country ranked as the poorest in the world according to the UN Human Development Index (HDI) of 189 nations.
Bazoum vowed to go ahead with a campaign commitment to strengthen girls’ education and to be “ruthless” in the fight against corruption, a problem that had tainted Issoufou’s tenure.
