Niger presidential guards are holdinBazoum Mohamed Bazoum inside the presidential palace in the capital, which has been blocked off by military vehicles since Wednesday morning, security sources said. The movements have the semblance of four military takeovers that have hit neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020. Ministries next...
Military coup
Former Chief of Army Staff, retired Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, has said that coup should be seen as an organised crime and punished accordingly to allow democracy to survive in Africa. Buratai said this at a One-Day International Conference on Organised Crimes put together by the Tukur Buratai Centre for...
By DAVID IORJA, Abuja – President Bola Tinubu on Saturday in Nairobi, Kenya, called on African leaders to respect democracy, rule of law, and ensure political stability. In his statement at a high-level event organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the margins of Fifth Mid-Year...
President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria is working closely with ECOWAS to deal with insecurity in the West African region as well as implementing strategies to contain the spate of unconstitutional changes in government. The president spoke while receiving Letters of Credence from Ambassadors of Switzerland, Sweden, Republic of Ireland,...
Multi-party democracy is the best system of government, President Muhammadu Buhari declared on Wednesday in Abuja. He said his declaration stemmed from his experiences both as military head of state and as civilian president. He made the declaration when he hosted a delegation of the Universal Peace Federation Africa...
Burkina Faso’s army captain, Ibrahim Traore, announced Friday night that the army had seized power and ousted military leader Paul Henri Damiba, who himself had taken power in a coup only eight months ago. Traore said in a statement that a group of officers who helped Damiba seize power...
The Minister of Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed last Thursday in Abuja said the government has uncovered 96 financiers of terrorist groups, Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP). “Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), which exchanges intelligence on Boko Haram, ISWAP with 19 countries in 2020-2021,...
By DAVID IORJA, Abuja – President Muhammadu Buhari has received a comprehensive briefing on the coup attempt to oust President Umaru Sissoco Embalo of Guinea-Bissau, but which was aborted by loyalist forces. On the sidelines of the African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government holding in Addis...
The Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Nana Akufo-Addo on Thursday said the coup in Mali was “contagious” and had led to subsequent coups in the region. Akufo-Addo explained that Mali’s coup in August 2020 was followed by a second military coup in the West...
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has joined other West African leaders for an emergency summit following the spate of coups in the subregion. Osinbajo left with Nigeria’s delegate early Thursday for Accra, Ghana for the Extraordinary Summit of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government deliberating. Emergency talks...
Guinea-Bissau’s capital appeared calm on Wednesday a day after President Umaro Sissoco Embalo survived a gun attack, as France joined condemnation for what has been called an attempted coup in one of Africa’s most unstable countries. Heavily armed men on Tuesday afternoon surrounded government buildings in the capital Bissau...
Sustained gunfire was heard on Tuesday near the seat of government in the coup-prone West African state of Guinea-Bissau, AFP reporters said, as a regional bloc condemned what it called an “attempted coup”. Heavily-armed men surrounded the Palace of Government, where President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and Prime Minister Nuno...
The African Union said Monday it had suspended Burkina Faso in response to the January 24 coup that ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore. The bloc’s 15-member Peace and Security Council said on Twitter it had voted “to suspend the participation of #BurkinaFaso in all AU activities until the...
The West African bloc ECOWAS on Friday suspended Burkina Faso following a coup, but will not impose other sanctions for the time being, a participant at a virtual summit said. ECOWAS is also calling for the new junta to release ousted president Roch Marc Christian Kabore and other officials...
Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will hold an extraordinary summit on Burkina Faso and Mali on Friday, Ivory Coast’s information minister said, after military takeovers in both countries. Army officers in Burkina Faso ousted President Roch Kabore on Monday in West Africa’s third coup...
The military coup in Burkina Faso deals another heavy blow to France’s fading efforts to stabilise the Sahel region, where Islamist militants have grown in strength and people’s attitudes towards former colonial masters have hardened. Successive coups in Mali, Chad, and now Burkina Faso have weakened Paris’ local alliances,...
Soldiers in Burkina Faso on Monday announced on state television that they have seized power in the West African country following a mutiny over the civilian president’s failure to contain an Islamist insurgency. A junior officer announced the suspension of the constitution, the dissolution of the government and parliament,...
The president of Burkina Faso was arrested on Monday and detained by soldiers along with members of his cabinet, security sources said, one day after troops staged a mutiny in the jihadist-wracked country. Soldiers rose up at several army bases across the West African state on Sunday, demanding the...
Burkina Faso’s government denied that the army had seized control of the country on Sunday after exchanges of gunfire took place at multiple army barracks, including two in the capital. “Information on social media would have people believe there was an army takeover,” government spokesman Alkassoum Maiga said in...
Hundreds of Sudanese anti-coup protesters rallied Tuesday chanting slogans against the military as security forces deployed in Khartoum and neighbouring cities, witnesses said, days after the resignation of the country’s civilian premier. Protesters shouted “No, no to military rule” and called for the fall of Sudan’s ruling council headed...