Fri Jul 28, 2023 – 9:27 am EDT
(LifeSiteNews) — In the last 24 hours a military coup has seized power from the incumbent President of Niger. The West African nation, predominantly Muslim and a former French colonial possession, has some of the most precious uranium reserves in the world.
President Mohamed Bazoum – seen as a close friend of France and of the West – has been ousted by this, the second coup in two years. On the night of March 30, 2021, a group of soldiers from the national army attempted to seize the Presidential Palace immediately prior to President Bazoum’s swearing-in ceremony.
A troubled region
This is the seventh coup in the region since 2020. Both Burkina Faso and Mali have seen two military coups each in the last three years, with additional neighbors Chad and Guinea both seeing their governments replaced by military rule in 2021.
Former colonial power France had been running a regional military security operation since 2013. Named Operation Barkhane, it centered on policing the unrest in Mali, with cooperation from the British Army, Sweden, and Estonia.
The French withdrew in 2022, having committed over
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