Discrepancies befall Niger coup plotters as former rebel leader forms anti-coup movement

Discrepancies befall Niger coup plotters as former rebel leader forms anti-coup movement

Rhissa Ag Boula, a politician and former rebel commander in Niger, has organized a resistance group to oppose the military leaders who plotted the coup that deposed the country’s civilian government on July 26.

The group is the first evidence of internal opposition to the country’s new military government since it gained power.

Ag Boula released a statement on Wednesday, where he said his group, the Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) plans to reinstate the ousted President, Mohammed Bazoum, who has been detained by the military government since the takeover, Reuters reports

“Niger is the victim of a tragedy orchestrated by people charged with protecting it,” the statement read.

In the statement, Ag Boula indicated his support for ECOWAS and other international bodies looking to restore constitutional order in the country.

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He added that the CRR would make itself available to any of the bodies for any useful purposes.

Ag Boula’s resistance group comes just as diplomatic efforts to reverse the coup have been unsuccessful following the military government’s rejection of the diplomatic mission from the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Both AU and ECOWAS envoys were denied entry by the military government on Tuesday, resisting pressure to negotiate before a summit on Thursday at which heads of state from the ECOWAS will discuss the possible use of force.

Ag Boula played a leading role in uprisings by Tuaregs, a nomadic ethnic group present in Niger’s desert north, in the 1990s and 2000s.

Like many former rebels, he was integrated into the government under Bazoum and his predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou.

Discrepancies befall Niger coup plotters as former rebel leader forms anti-coup movement

(TheWhistler)