While the chiefs of staff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), at a meeting on Thursday, August 17 and Friday, August 18, in Accra, were drawing up the outlines of a possible military operation in Niger, Mohamed Bazoum's supporters were chomping at the bit. Not only has an intervention to free the head of state, detained since July 26 by General Tiani's men, been slow to materialize, but the crisis, they believe, could have been resolved long ago. Le Monde has been able to confirm that a request for intervention was made to the French in Niamey in the hours following the coup by the head of the presidential guard, and that this request was given serious consideration.
This was confirmed by the putschists themselves on the night of July 30. Reading out a statement on national television, Amadou Abdramane, colonel-major of the air force who had become the junta's spokesman, declared that evening that "in line with its policy of seeking ways and means to intervene militarily in Niger, France, with the complicity of certain Nigeriens, held a meeting at the headquarters of the Niger National Guard, to obtain the necessary political and military authorizations."
At this meeting, the putschists' spokesman continued, Hassoumi Massaoudou, Bazoum's foreign minister acting as interim prime minister, signed a document "authorizing the French partner to carry out strikes inside the presidential palace in order to free the President of the Republic of Niger, who is being held hostage." A similar text was also initialed "on behalf of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces," by Colonel Major Midou Guirey, Commander of the Niger National Guard, according to the Conseil national pour la sauvegarde de la patrie (CNSP).
A source close to President Bazoum confirmed that the request made by the coup plotters did indeed exist. When we realized, in the first few hours, that it was really a coup d'état, interim Prime Minister Massaoudou asked, quite normally, for France's support," says this adviser, who requested anonymity. France asked for written authorization."
According to a number of French and African sources, Nigerien soldiers were preparing to launch an assault to free Bazoum. Meanwhile, at the presidential palace, the elected head of state and Abdourahamane Tiani were holding talks, one after the other, with the former president, Mahamadou Issoufou (2011-2021), who had been rushed in to play mediator. But the former head of state, who was very close to the officer he himself had appointed to head the presidential guard 12 years earlier, failed.
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