A military coup deposed President Bazoum in Niger on July 26th and installed General Abdourahamane Tiani as the country’s new leader. Bazoum had become extremely unpopular due to his administration’s corruption, failure to tackle poverty, cruel oppression of protests and oppositional forces, and his dependent function as a lackey of French and US imperialism.
Following their expulsion from Mali and Burkina Faso, France, and the United States were left relying on their substantial military outposts in Niger, including a massive drone station in the northern province of Agadez and a combined military presence of 2,600 personnel, to defend their control over one of the world’s largest uranium deposits.
The Western powers and their local allies, most notably the Nigerian government of Tinubu that leads the ECOWAS coalition, are concerned that if they do not smash the new Niger junta, other nations could follow.
Socialists have no cause to praise the new military juntas of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and possibly in Gabon. These are neither progressive nor socialist regimes. Typically, they include military personnel who have taken part in “anti-terror” operations undertaken by France and the United States in recent years.
The leaders of the junta do not have a socialist agenda of establishing a society dominated by workers and impoverished peasants, expropriating foreign firms, and breaking with imperialism. They prefer to construct a capitalist regime that seeks partnership with other imperialist nations such as Russia and China.
We saw this in Mali, when the junta essentially replaced French forces with Wagner mercenaries. At the recent Russia-Africa Summit, Captain Ibrahim Traoré voiced Burkina Faso’s strong support for Putin and Russian imperialism.
However, the recent coups in Gabon, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso respond to an authentic anti-imperialist mass movement that has been developing and continues to develop in West Africa, and this is what truly concerns the interests of Western imperialism and provokes its reaction.
ECOWAS, along with the European Union and the United States, have placed sanctions on Niger and threaten military action against the country.
We oppose ECOWAS, EU, and US imperialism’s sanctions and military threats. We demand that sanctions be lifted immediately.
In the event of an ECOWAS military intervention (which would be either directly or indirectly backed by Western powers), we will call for the armed defense of Niger and the defeat of the pro-imperialist invaders. We will undertake and lead an international campaign of solidarity in defense of the right to self-determination of the people of Niger.
Hence, we urge genuine socialists to join us in fighting off Western imperialism in Niger, but with complete independence of the government of Niger and of the imperialist powers that seek to advance their own agenda in West Africa. Socialists must reject all imperialist powers, both East and West. We must band together and form a revolutionary party, both domestically and globally to rid ourselves of all imperialist and capitalist exploiters and build a socialist society, which is the only true path to liberation.