A former rebel leader and politician in Niger has launched a movement opposing the military junta that seized power two weeks ago -- the first sign of organized resistance to army rule in the West African country.
In a statement released Wednesday, Rhissa Ag Boula said his group, the Council of the Resistance for the Republic (CRR), will aim to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been in detention at his residence since members of the presidential guard took power on July 26.
Boula is a former minister of tourism and a leader in two Tuareg ethnic insurgencies in Niger, one in the 1990s, the other from 2007 to 2009.
Meanwhile, Bazoum's party said Wednesday that the president and his family are running out of food and have been living without electricity and running water for a week. An adviser told the Associated Press that the family has only rice and canned goods left to eat.
Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are scheduled to hold a summit Thursday in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, to discuss the Niger crisis.
On Tuesday, Niger's military junta rejected a proposed diplomatic mission from West African states, the African Union and the United Nations. The junta leaders said a "climate of threatened aggression" made it impossible to hold talks on ending the constitutional crisis in Niger.
Late on Tuesday, ECOWAS said in a statement that it would "continue to deploy all measures in order to restore constitutional order in Niger." The 15-member bloc, along with Western allies of Niger, have placed a series of financial sanctions against the country since the coup. The financial sanctions could lead to a default on Niger's debt repayments, Reuters reported.
ECOWAS has threatened to use force to reinstate Bazoum but a deadline on Sunday for Niger's military to stand down passed without any military intervention.
The U.S. embassy, meanwhile, has warned Americans to avoid the presidential palace and downtown parts of the capital, Niamey, warning of an increased security presence to monitor demonstrations.
The embassy said Wednesday it is aware of reports that cash and some goods are becoming scarce.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson on Tuesday said the United States still has hope for reversing Niger's coup but was "realistic."
"We do still have hope, but we are also very realistic," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. "We do have hope that the situation will be reversed, but at the same time, we are making clear, including in direct conversations with junta leaders themselves, what the consequences are for failing to return to constitutional order."
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Late Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had spoken to Bazoum "to express our continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the current constitutional crisis."
"The United States reiterates our call for the immediate release of him and his family," Blinken wrote on his official page.
On Monday, neighboring Mali said it and Burkina Faso would send a delegation of officials to Niger to show support for the military rulers.
Both countries -- which have fallen to military coups in recent years -- have said military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
Meanwhile, Blinken warned against Russia's Wagner mercenaries taking advantage of instability in Niger, whose neighbor Mali has become a partner of Moscow.
Blinken said in an interview with the BBC released Tuesday that he doubted the Wagner Group plotted the Nigerien military's July 26 ouster of Bazoum, a Western ally.
"I think what happened and what continues to happen in Niger was not instigated by Russia or by Wagner," Blinken said, according to a transcript released by the State Department.
"But to the extent that they try to take advantage of it -- and we see a repeat of what's happened in other countries, where they've brought nothing but bad things in their wake -- that wouldn't be good," he said. "Every single place that this group, Wagner Group, has gone, death, destruction and exploitation have followed."
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
