The head of the junta in power in Niger dissolved Thursday April 4 by order the councils of local authorities elected at the end of 2020 and the capital Niamey will be led by a soldier, he announced on television and radio public. “General Abdourahamane Tiani signed today, Thursday, April 4, an order dissolving municipal councils, city councils and regional councils,” public television Télé Sahel announced Thursday evening.
Under the terms of the order, “municipal councils, city councils and regional councils are dissolved,” the television said. Municipal councils govern municipalities, sometimes grouped together within a larger city. No explanation for this dissolution was given.
By another decree, General Tiani appointed people responsible for leading the communities, the television added. These are soldiers, police officers and civilians, according to the list read by public radio. The capital, Niamey, will now be led by an army colonel replacing the mayor, Oumarou Dogari.
At the end of the municipal and regional elections of December 2020, the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS, in power from 2011 until the coup d’état of July 26, 2023) alone won 1,799 of the 4 246 councilor seats in the country’s 266 municipalities.
Niger, which has faced deadly jihadist attacks in the west and southeast of the country for years, has been led by a military regime since the overthrow of elected president Mohamed Bazoum in July 2023.