NIAMEY: Niger’s military regime will organize a “national convention” from Feb. 15 to 19, notably intended to set the duration of the transition period that began with the 2023 overthrow of civilian President Mohamed Bazoum, the Interior Ministry said.
The ministry unveiled the dates in a press release broadcast on state television, adding that the gathering would take place in the capital Niamey.
In August 2023, shortly after taking power in a coup, General Abdourahamane Tiani announced the organization of an “inclusive national dialogue” to outline the priority areas of governance and lay down the duration of the transition.
At the time, he mentioned a maximum duration of three years, but he has not addressed the issue since.
Early last year consultations were held across the country’s eight regions to lay out a working basis for next week’s meetings, with a national commission also created by presidential decree to oversee the work of the four-day conference set to produce a “preliminary draft of the transition charter.”
Following the gathering there will be a three-week period in which to draft a “final report” to General Tiani.
The commission, headed by Mamoudou Harouna Djingareye, a traditional leader, also comprises former ministers, academics, lawyers, soldiers, advisers to General Tiani, religious leaders and figures drawn from civil society.
It is made up of five sub-committees whose themes are “peace, security, national reconciliation and social cohesion,” “political and institutional overhaul” and “justice and human rights.”
Niger is one of several countries in Africa’s Sahel region where the military has seized power in coups in recent years, amid persistent attacks by insurgencies.
A few days earlier, armed assailants in the country killed at least 10 soldiers in an ambush on a military unit that had been sent to hunt cattle rustlers in a border region near Burkina Faso.
The military unit was deployed to catch criminals who had been stealing the cattle in the western village of Takzat, the military said in a statement broadcast Wednesday night.
“It was during the operation that a group of criminals ambushed the detachment of the internal security forces which resulted in the loss of 10 of our soldiers,” the statement said. It did not identify the attackers.
The attackers managed to flee, but the military caught and neutralized 15 “terrorists” on Tuesday, the statement added.
Niger, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by militant groups, including some allied with Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance. The three countries have vowed to strengthen their cooperation by establishing a new security alliance, the Alliance of Sahel States.
But the security situation in the Sahel, a vast region on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, has significantly worsened since the juntas took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and civilians killed both by militants and government forces.
