Niger, America’s last relatively strong and democratic security partner in the Sahel region of West Africa, succumbed to a coup on July 26. In true praetorian fashion, soldiers from the Presidential Guard turned on President Mohamed Bazoum, detaining him in his presidential palace in the capital, Niamey. The government may have been able to suppress the mutiny if other units in the military had not, after several hours of uncertainty, supported the putschists late in the evening. Now only a major fissure within the military or a serious threat of external force could force the coup plotters to step down.
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