Read more about the article The Sahel Crisis – What is Happening in Niger? Foreign Actors and Further Developments.
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The Sahel Crisis – What is Happening in Niger? Foreign Actors and Further Developments.

Today, Niger hosts Niger Air Base 201—the US’s largest drone base (Jones, 2023), located in the city of Agadez—which is used to monitor extremist groups (Gordon, 2023), and to which, “as a precautionary measure” (Mitchell, 2023) after 26 July, the US repositioned a portion of its personnel. Following the coup, which the US only acknowledged as such on 10 October (Miller, 2023), monitoring drone flights were suspended; as of mid-September, they have slowly and discreetly resumed (Gordon, 2023).

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27 October 2023
Read more about the article ECOWAS Imposes Sanctions Against Niger Following The 26 July Military Coup
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ECOWAS Imposes Sanctions Against Niger Following The 26 July Military Coup

On 26 July, one day after Niger’s presidential guard detained democratically-elected President Mohamed Bazoum, the army command endorsed the coup orchestrated by Abdourahmane Tchiani who, while declaring himself the leader of the newly established military junta, claimed that economic hardship, corruption and deteriorating security had made such move necessary (Schotte, 2023). After seizing power, the junta started to crack down on key political figures and fundamental freedoms: on 30 July, it arrested the ministers of petroleum, education and mines, as well as the ruling party’s head (Mednick, 2023). Meanwhile, junta spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane banned the use of social media to spread content which would allegedly harm national security (Mednick, 2023).

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11 August 2023
Read more about the article (In)Security Outcomes from the Coup in Niger
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(In)Security Outcomes from the Coup in Niger

On the night of 25 July and 26, Niger experienced a coup which resulted in the arrest of President Bazoum by Chief Abdourahmane Tchiani, the leader of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Nation (CSNP) military junta, who claimed legitimate executive and legislative power in the country. Located in the Sahel region, Niger shares borders with Algeria and Libya to the north, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin to the south, and Burkina Faso and Mali to the west.

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7 August 2023
Read more about the article European forces to relocate from Mali to Niger in fight against jihadist insurgents
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European forces to relocate from Mali to Niger in fight against jihadist insurgents

A contingent of some-2400 European troops are set to leave Mali and continue counter-insurgency operations from Niger, as the former colony’s President Mohamed Bazoum said on February 18th. The Sahel area has been constantly plagued for years by Islamist groups, with hundreds of victims and millions of displaced. In the past decade, France, at the helm of a European coalition, has shown a keen interest in collaborating with former colonies to contrast the threat, but the missions have encountered both logistical problems and local dissatisfaction with foreign presence, with Malian armed forces spokesperson Souleymane Dembele lamenting the inefficacy of European troops and Nigerine anti-foreign leader Maïkol Zodi considering them «as an occupying force».

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2 March 2022
Read more about the article Unpacking EU’s Integrated Sahel Strategy
European Union Training Mission (EUTM)
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Unpacking EU’s Integrated Sahel Strategy

After much wait and debate, on 19 April, the Council of the European Union has approved a set of conclusions to establish its new Sahel strategy.

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4 May 2021