The coup in the West African nation of Niger has prompted fears that instability in Africa could worsen the broader international security situation involving Russia and Ukraine.
Leaders of West African nations threatened to use force on Niger’s military junta if it did not reinstate the country’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum within a week.The escalation in the landlocked African state bordering Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria has raised fears that Russia, through the mercenary group Wagner, could tighten its grip on the region, which experts describe as the world’s longest corridor of countries under military rule.
“Niger is the latest domino to fall in a series of coups across the southern Saharan region,” Matthew Sussex, adjunct associate professor at Griffith University’s Griffith Asia Institute, told this masthead. In a corridor spanning 5600 kilometres, from Sudan on the east coast to Guinea on the west, there are now six countries in Africa under military rule, exposing a vacuum Russia has shown it is eager to fill.
Thousands of coup supporters marched through the streets of Niger’s capital at the weekend denouncing France, the country’s former colonial power.Following a Russia-Africa Summit held in St Petersburg last week, “concerns about Russia’s increasing influence in Africa are justified, but shouldn’t be overstated”, Currie said.
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