Rhissa Ag-Boula, Mohamed Bazoum's minister of state, is one of the closest advisors to the president of Niger, who has been held captive by General Abdourahamane Tiani since July 26.
For this former Tuareg rebel leader, the putsch is not over yet. On August 8, from Paris, he launched the Council of Resistance for the Republic, a movement that hopes to unite loyalists.
Rhissa Ag-Boula: I am on the phone with him every day. The conditions in which he, his wife and son are sequestered are very difficult, because for several days now he's had no electricity or tap water. He has to ration his supply of mineral water. He is worried about his son's health, but he is a very strong person psychologically.
Sign his resignation? No, not a chance. He started fighting for democracy at a very young age, first in high school, then at university and then as a teacher. Politically, he is very well equipped. It is difficult, but he will hold out.
If there is no intervention to restore constitutional legality in Niger and free President Bazoum, the countries of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) will completely lose their credibility with the people of Africa, and the West will lose the Sahel. That would be very serious.
Technically speaking, it is feasible. The first step is a surgical operation on the palace, where President Bazoum is being held. It is a matter of two or three strikes, nothing more than that. That will cause a stampede within the presidential guard, the unit behind the putsch.
Then nothing, just total calm and a return to constitutional order.
I know him very well. I met him when he was a junior officer, and I have been working with him for the last twelve years, since he was appointed head of the presidential guard by President Mahamadou Issoufou. Tiani and his family are people I confronted during the Tuareg rebellion of 1990-1992. You can't negotiate with these kind of thugs, you have to use force to convince them. I know the value of each and every one of them.
He has none. Him and Salifou Mody [ex-chief of staff, considered to be the junta's number two], are garbage. I faced them when Tiani was a sergeant and Mody a second lieutenant. They were appointed to these positions just to tide things over.
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