At first a dozen, then around thirty people arrive little by little after dark at the Francophonie roundabout in Niamey, responding to the call of the soldiers who overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum at the end of July.
On Friday evening, supporters of the coup took over several central roundabouts in the Nigerien capital. The day before, the putschists had invited the population to “vigilance” against “spies and foreign forces” and to report any “movement of suspicious individuals”.
“We settled on the strategic roundabouts to picket at night with the population”, explains Boubacar Kimba Kollo, coordinator of the Support Committee for the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP, which took power ), created at the very beginning of the putsch on July 26, and whose first statements taken up by state television date from the 29.
“Everyone turns around (these roundabouts) to have access to the capital”, he describes, explaining that he deployed members of the Committee on several of these central roundabouts in Niamey.
The objective, he explains, is to “monitor the comings and goings of any suspicious person, whom we are trying to arrest ourselves”. For him, “it’s a fight of the people!”
Who are these suspects? “It is information that we have, but that we can only keep quiet,” he says. “We have real information that leads us to say that there is an imminent threat to the capital, we cannot sit idly by.
Is he referring to a possible imminent military intervention by neighboring West African countries which are increasing the pressure before the end, on Sunday, of the ultimatum they gave to the putschists to restore President Bazoum to his functions?
There is certainly that, recognize several people gathered, but not only: “It is not even ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) that worries us, but a French intervention”, affirms the coordinator Kimba Kollo, referring pell – mixes foreign legion, enemies of the people, and more generally, “all those who try to attack us”.
Having become the main popular harangue of the pro-coup demonstrations organized since July 26, a “Down with France!” is launched by a young person around.
Another drives around the roundabout with a Nigerian flag in the window. “That’s a patriot, a real one!” Said Alassane, a young man from the neighborhood who came, more out of curiosity than political support, to see where the music was coming from.
The driver sees the crowd, leans towards the passenger seat, pulls out a Russian flag, puts the handbrake in the middle of the road, gets out of his car, and waves the two flags to the sky.
This support committee, along with the M-62 civil society movement, is one of the spearheads of support for the putschist soldiers.
They have been organizing and providing security for pro-military rallies since the coup d’etat, and are the voices of putschists who control their speeches to the extreme.
In some respects, they resemble the Yerewolo movements and the Military Defense Collective in Bamako, two leading platforms for the rhetoric of the Malian military regime, and the popular vigilance committees close to the putschists in Ouagadougou.
In the streets of Niamey, there are many who, while supporting this new coup, the fifth in Niger’s history, are also calling for de-escalation.
On the Place de la Francophonie, in the heart of one of the many working-class neighborhoods of the capital, cars pass without paying too much attention to this gathering, to which dozens of talibé children from Koranic schools have quickly joined.
Friday evening, vigilance still seemed to be running in but, promises deputy coordinator Tassirou Issa, “we will soon be checking all the trucks, all the vehicles, we are 25 million police officers in Niger, 25 million soldiers”, referring to the number of inhabitants of the country.
He has a flocked cap of General Abdourahamane Tiani, the leader of the putschists, screwed on his skull.
Mahamat Bachir, designer, goes through this: “It’s important to support my country, the military. I came to support what is happening here!”.
After 10:00 p.m., the Nigerian anthem comes out of the speakers. The atmosphere is joyful and Boubacar Kimba Kollo warns: “We will stay every night until the end of the threat!”.
06/08/2023 12:46:45 – Niamey (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
