The CSRD Junta has named (1 March) a provisional government of 20 ministers. Apart form President Salou Djibo, there are five military men all from the highest levels, including Generals Mamadou Ousseini, Mai Manga Oumara, Abdou Kaza who were just below Tandja's Military Chief Boureima, and considered loyalists to that regime. They are joined by Colonels Ahmed Mohamed and Diallo Amadou who were members of Wanke's 1999 junta. Their five portfolios make this the most military officers in a government since Gen. Ali Saibou's 11 March 1991 government, the last prior to democratization. The only other new Minister (other than PM Danda) to have served at this level: Minister of Education Dan Dah, who was Justice Minister under Wanke. Of the less known remaining, five are women, the most of any Nigerien government. Only time will tell if these civilian ministers hold powerful posts past the transition, or are influential over the junta.
Afrique
Niger: With Tandja out, aid groups can talk about famine
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Abdoulaye Tiemogo, Editor of Niamey opposition paper Le Canard Dechaine, is quoted in this well done AP article "Niger: Once-taboo topic of hunger spoken again".
Niger's first post-independence coup came amid another food crisis in 1974, and "the soldiers who took power justified it by saying the president at the time could not feed the population… That's why they're still afraid of words like famine," said Tiemogo, who spent three months in prison and seven in exile for publishing articles critical of Tandja. A government report in December on the country's latest food crisis may have only come to light because Tiemogo obtained a leaked copy… The failure to publish accurate statistics can have "dramatic consequences," Tiemogo said. "If you don't know what's really going on, you can't react to it, and it's the population that suffers. People die."
Niger: The composition of the CSRD announced
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Libération-Niger reports that Cmdt. Salou Djibou has announced the membership of the CSRD junta. They are:
Président : Le Chef d'Escadron SALOU DJIBO
• Secrétaire Permanent : Colonel ABDOULAYE BADIE
• Membres du Conseil :
• Colonel DIALLO AMADOU
• Colonel HASSANE MOSSI ;
• Colonel GOUKOYE ABDOULKARIM, Porte-parole du Conseil ;
• Colonel SALIFOU MODY ;
• Colonel DJIBRILLA HIMA HAMIDOU;
• Colonel ABDOULAYE ADAMOU HAROUNA;
• Colonel LAMINOU MAHAMANE MOUSSA ;
• Colonel HAMED MOHAMED;
• Lieutenant-Colonel ADAMOU GARBA ;
• Lieutenant-Colonel AMADOU MADOUGOU WONKOYE ;
• Lieutenant-Colonel CHAÏBOU IDRISSA ;
• Lieutenant-Colonel ABOUBACAR AMADOU SANDA ;
• Lieutenant-Colonel MAMANE SOULEY ;
• Commandant MOCTAR AMADOU MOUNKAÏLA ;
• Commandant MAÏNASSARA SALIFOU ;
• Commandant AMIROU ABDOULKADER ;
• Chef de Bataillon ABDOURAMANE IBRAHIM ;
• Capitaine DJIBRIL ADAMOU HAROUNA ;
• Lieutenant ISSA AMADOU ;
• Sous-Lieutenant ARZIKA TCHIEMOGO.
Niger: Behind the scenes at a coup
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Christophe Boisbouvier in Jeune Afrique was a veritable "Roman de cle", detailing how the February 18 Coup happened behind the scenes, according to his inside sources. I haven't the room to detail every revelation, but here are some of the top.
Tandja cut the pay and dismisses 37 members of the Presidential Guard in February. When the attack came, it was only elements of this FNIS unit that resisted, while others helped the attackers. He had delivered regular bribes (as detailed in a previous piece by Boisbouvier) to the Joint chiefs of 30 000 to 76 000 euros, but nothing for anyone else. He even made large payments to the former Tuareg rebel leaders to assure their peace deal. The coup was finalized at a 10AM meeting at the Supply Camp run by Djibo, along with a Captain Sirfi of the Air Corps who had contacts in the FNIS unit guarding Tandja. Pele and other top officers were not present at the coup, and the President and Ministers were quickly captured, but allowed their phones.
Fifteen dead in Timbuktu mosque stampede – police (Reuters)
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Thursday evening was Maoulid (Mawlid) the celebration of the Prophet's birth that is a carnival like holiday across West Africa. Sadly, construction barriers near Timbuktu's famous Djingareyber mosque caused crowds that resulted in a panic and stampede. Police say 15 people, including two children, were killed and that another 41 people were injured. "Every year for Maouloud people come to the grand mosque, but this year construction blocked some of the roads," said Imam Abdramane ben Effayouti. "People took to narrow alleys, there was jostling, and the tragedy occurred." Very sad.
Niger´s junta puts all mining contracts “under study”?
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Xinhua picks out a phrase in CSRD spokesman Col Goukoye's statement on the 24th for scrutiny. Scrutiny indeed, as this is China, France, and Canada's biggest concern. Goukoye declared that all mining contracts were certainly going to be looked at more carefully and that "everything is going to be done in equity and justice." Referring to possible corruption charges against past officials, he said: "We are definitely going to hold those state officials accountable. That is a priority. An absolute priority. It is a must that we do this and instructions have been given to those charged with this issue to ensure that the payments that are supposed to be done at the expiry date are made at that time." Remember that Col. Hima Hamidou, number three or four in the 1999 junta and number two now, was on a corruption commission shortly after Ibrahim Bare Mainassara was overthrown. It's August 1999 conclusion recovered some 2000M CFA but no high profile convictions. Expect a similar result.
AQIM: Former hostage Peter Camatte speaks
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
In a press appearance in Bamako Peter Camatte, the French-Malian NGO head who was held by the AQIM described his captors as "fanatics". His description of the Algerian Abdelhamid Abou Zeïd's group was "Fanatics, who thought no one but them were real Muslims". He said the group was %70-%80 youths, with whom he could communicate with only a few broken English, because most didn't speak any French. He said they sat in the desert, baking, in "unhygienic" conditions, with the only water "absolutely disgusting". These men didn't kidnap him, but he was "sold" to them by a Malian criminal gang. I'm going to go out on a limb (again): it's Algeria's problem with terrorists (who seem to have a lot of cash, via Western government's ransoms) meeting impoverished, armed Malian smugglers. So just which one is dumping the problem of their failed politics on the other?
Niger: Who’s under arrest, Mk. IV
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Liberation (Niamey) reports Col. Gukoye (the CSRD spokesman) listed out yesterday (24th) who the junta currently has under arrest apart from Tandja. And despite the statements previously that these people were released, they are "under arrest", not just under surveillance in their homes. They are (all "former"): PM Ali Badjo Gamatié, Minister of Justice Garba Lompo, Minister of Finance Ali Lamine Zeine, Minister of Mines Mohamed Abdoulahi, Minister of Equipment Lamido Mounouni and Interior Minister Albadé Abouba. This leaves out two formerly reported, MNSD party head Seini Oumarou and Foreign Minister Aichatou Mindaoudou.
Sahel:”Interférences” (Le Quotidien d’Oran)
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
This Algerian paper has an interesting piece on the current "AQIM problem" in the Sahel, if only as an elucidation of a Algerian nationalist perspective. The US and other are continually hammering on about the Sahel becoming the next Afghanistan or Somalia, but more as an attempt to justify the intrusion of AFRICOM and the "War on Terror" into Africa (so far, true in my view). The states in the region have "refused to blindly embark on the American global war", but many have internal weaknesses (smuggling, regionalism). True, but now it gets fishy. Mali, he says, had the 'excuse' of the Tuareg insurgency not to govern the north. Now Algeria has solved that problem for them, and yet they still "do nothing". Mali has "betrayed" Algeria, releasing the AQIM under the "interferences" of the west, hints that the Mali govt. has a finger in the hostage business. But Mali is "fated to return, sooner or later, the path of cooperation." No mention that the AQIM come from Algeria, of course.
Mali: AQIM release French hostage
by Tommy Miles • • 0 Comments
Pierre Camatte, seized by a gang near his home in Menaka and shopped to the AQIM in the desert, has returned to Bamako. Will he ever be able to go back to his longtime home? The Malians released four AQIM prisoners in exchange, we can assume under French pressure. What else each side got from France or other western nations we will likely never know. Algeria and Mauritania have withdrawn their ambassadors to Mali in protest. Mali has its problems, but in this case, it just seems everyone else's festering problems, which would cost them too much to fix at home, come to northern Mali out of convenience. The very least Algeria, Mauritania, and the west can do for Mali is is to make it harder for their proxy warriors to end up in Gao. But that's wishful thinking, I'm sure. No word on the other hostages.