Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-66320895

TLDR (from source): Troops from the Presidential Guard are holding Niger president Mohamed Bazoum in a coup. Bazoum is considered Western ally and pro-democracy. Bazoum appears to have support of the population and the military. Things are mostly peaceful but things can escalate quickly. The military and pro-Bazoum protestors have been surrounding the palace in support of the president – some shots were fired to disperse the crowds from the Palace guard.

My take: The west should pay close attention. U.S Foreign Secretary, Antony Blinken, and U.N Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, have both offered their respective parties unwavering full support. The region has had decades of general turmoil and in particular Jihadist and Islamist fighters to deal with. Wagner PMC has assisted many powers in the region through security contracts in which Wagner has fought off rivals to given governments in exchange for capital and lucrative access to resources. Wagner is very much in a way “an empire not beholden to the classical idea of borders and territory”. Wagner, now autonomous from Russia, may want to focus their power more exclusively in the region.

The west should be concerned because Wagner. Many Africans (not necessarily in Niger) look at Wagner more positively than they do Western forces. Wagner has sent forces to stabilise the region, China has provided loans and grants for infrastructure and the West is made up of former-colonial powers that owe them reparations and have largely ignored their plight and struggles. The proof of this is when the war in Ukraine happened – African nations were playing the proverbial smallest violin.

The West needs to do more to make things right with the African nations. The situation in Niger presents somewhat of an opportunity for this. The plight of African people isn’t some “oh well, they’re just from far off country who’s suffering is inevitable”. The hardship that many African persons go through is real, they have thoughts and feelings just like any of us in the West. The West has gotten both complacent and apathetic to the needs of our African cousins to the point we’ve become desensitized to anything that happens on the continent – this is why Africans aren’t crying much when its something “we” care about.

We need to show Africans that we care about their issues, that the west is the de facto only true reliable ally and that cooperation with the West puts them on an equal footing to help them decide their own destinies (and not just some geopolitical foothold being played towards our interests) because they:

1. Deserve it
2. It’s in all our interests that Africa has a free, stable and prosperous future able to make their own democratic decisions free from Western or Eastern coercion.

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