The sumptuous villas stretch as far as the eye can see. With roof terraces and porches supported by sculpted columns, these residences are so large you can hardly count the number of doors and windows. Built in a neighborhood on the western outskirts of Niamey, most of these luxury edifices are still under construction, with exposed concrete and piles of bricks on the ground. In a country where the minimum wage for workers barely exceeds €45 a month, the identity of the owners is no mystery to anyone.

"These are the people who have been in power for more than 10 years," Mounkaila Halidou, general secretary of the CNT trade union, answered immediately. "All these buildings were built by civil servants with money stolen from the state. They have so much that they build these villas without even living in them." Nigeriens have even given the neighborhood a nickname: "Qui n'a pas volé" ("Who hasn't stolen").

Before ex-president Mahamadou Issoufou came to power in 2011 (he was the predecessor of Mohamed Bazoum, who was overthrown by General Abdourahamane Tiani on July 26 and has been held hostage ever since), there were only fields. Today, buildings have driven out all greenery, and there are whispers in the wide dirt streets that most of them belong to top officials of the Parti Nigérien pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme (PNDS), the party in power before the coup.

Inside one of the many stores selling construction equipment, Issa Arzaka Souley, the owner, has the look of someone who has fallen on hard times. Beside him, an employee slumbered, while three others at the entrance waited desperately for customers, in front of a pile of scrap metal almost touching the store's ceiling. "There's been a drastic fall in the market," said the shopkeeper who, before the coup d'état, saw "customers coming in and out all day long." They used to be regulars in the neighborhood, but PNDS executives are now keeping a low profile, for fear of being hunted down by the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), the junta's governing body. The CNSP has had eight officials of the deposed regime arrested in recent days, according to the party.

Souleymane Djibo Maliki is not one to complain. The 34-year-old Nigerien, who was at the Stade Général-Seyni-Kountché on August 6, in the midst of a crowd of 35,000 people in favor of the coup, is one of those who "prefer the military to a sick democracy." Even if this means mobilizing to "defend the country against the threat of military intervention from ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States]."

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