Niger Junta Claims to Thwart 24-Hour Mutiny with Help from Russian Mercenaries

The military government of Niger, which seized power in a 2023 coup, claimed on Sunday it was able to suppress a violent 24-hour “mutiny” by disgruntled soldiers with the aid of Russian mercenaries. The unrest began on Friday night with reports of gunfire exchanged between government forces and the insurgents in the vicinity of the main airport in Niamey, the capital city of Niger. The airport complex includes a military base and is located near the presidential palace. The leaders of the mutiny included young special forces officers who were normally based outside Niamey. They launched simultaneous attacks on the Diori Hamani Airport, the presidential palace, and a national guard camp near the airport, as well as attempting to seize control of Niger’s public TV broadcaster. The TV station remained off-air until 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, when a news anchor read a statement from Defense Minister Gen. Salifou Mody. The minister said, “a group of soldiers, in breach of military regulations, tried to detain some of their comrades at Base 101 in Niamey and opened fire on certain sensitive sites in the city of Niamey.” “The prompt reaction of the defense and security forces made it possible to contain this heated moment, and they gradually took back control of these sites,” Mody said. Reporters in Niamey said that despite these confident pronouncements, the mutineers actually remained in control of Air Base 101 until late Saturday afternoon, and they kept trying to convince senior officers to join their bid to overthrow junta boss Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani. Tiani held on to power through that turbulent afternoon by deploying his loyal presidential guard, a unit he commanded to defend the civilian presidents of Niger for 12 years before he overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum in 2023. He also had help from the Africa Corps, the Russian mercenary unit formerly known as the Wagner Group. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Sunday that Tiani’s junta was able to repel an attack by “extremists” with “the assistance of servicemen from the African Corps of the Russian Ministry of Defense.” Niger and its two junta partners, Mali and Burkina Faso, have increasingly relied on Russian mercenaries for security after they drove off, or were abandoned by, Western governments and the African Union. French counterterrorism forces were expelled from Niger in December 2023. The juntas reinforced and trained their militaries by hiring Russian troops from the Wagner Group, the infamous mercenary outfit once headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin turned against Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and staged his own mutiny in June 2023. He was then killed under murky circumstances in a plane crash in August 2023. The Russian government took over the Wagner Group and rebranded it as the Africa Corps. Somewhat like Prigozhin’s mutiny against Putin over the bloody meat grinder of the Ukraine invasion, Tiani’s soldiers apparently rebelled because they were angry about constant attacks from jihadis. The leaders of the mutiny were reportedly soldiers who had been deployed in ground combat against jihadi forces in the Sahel region. The mutineers were also angry about poor equipment, poor pay, and even inadequate food rations. They seemed to have the edge over Tiani’s loyalist guard until the two or three hundred Russian Africa Corps troops in Niger intervened. Dozens of rebel soldiers were killed or captured on Saturday, with many of the prisoners paraded before cameras. Russian Ambassador to Niger Viktor Voropayev said Nigerian military officials visited the Africa Corps base at Diori Hamani airport after the uprising was over and “expressed gratitude to its servicemen for their assistance in suppressing the rebellion.” The Alliance of Sahel States, a group formed by the juntas in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso in 2023, issued a statement condemning the “betrayal” of the rebellious soldiers, and applauding “the bravery and professionalism of the loyalist republican forces” who “contained and thwarted” their coup attempt. The Premium Times of Nigeria reported on Sunday that the mood in Niamey remained tense, with “armed soldiers” and “tactical armored vehicles” prowling the streets. According to the Premium Times, the rebellious soldiers attacked Russia’s mercenaries first, “prompting them to defend themselves.” The Russians then joined with the Nigerien Presidential Guard to put down the coup, at the request of Tiani’s government. Researcher Hasret Kargin told Premium Times the mutiny was touched off by Tiani’s military government conducting a hostage trade with jihadis, trading four fighters linked to al-Qaeda for 11 captive soldiers. The mutineers were angry at Tiani for breaking his promise upon seizing power to fight against jihadis instead of making deals with them. Tiani himself remained out of the public eye on Monday, although he reportedly spoke to other regional leaders by phone. Senior researcher Yvan Guichaoua of the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies told RFI on Monday that the 24-hour mutiny was the most serious threat to the junta since it took power in 2023, and the outcome might have been decided as much by senior officers making last-minute decisions to remain loyal to Tiani as by the intervention of Russian mercenaries — but the Russians played rough once they joined the game. “It appears that kamikaze drones were used quite intensively. They may have persuaded the rebel officers and soldiers to surrender because they were causing too much damage among their ranks,” he said. “So I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the Russians saved the day, or at least helped contain the rebellion and the attempted coup.” Guichaoua predicted Tiani would be weakened by the coup attempt and more indebted to Moscow than ever for keeping him in power. “One likely consequence is that there will have to be some repair work within the ranks to restore a degree of cohesion. On the one hand, it sends a signal to anyone who might try to challenge the regime and will probably act as a deterrent. On the other, it creates a clearer divide between the presidential guard and the Russians on one side and the rest of the army on the other,” he said.