Hundreds of Niger citizens on Thursday, August 3 has gathered for a mass rally in the capital city, Niamey to back the coup in the country.
Protesters were seen brandishing giant Russian flags and placard in support of the military government.
The demonstrators converged at Independence Square in the heart of the city, following a call by a coalition of civil society associations on a day marking the country’s 1960 independence from France.
Issiaka Hamadou, one of the demonstrators, said that it was “only security that interests us,” irrespective of whether it came from “Russia, China, Turkey, if they want to help us.”
He further alleged that the French had been looting and exploiting the natural resources of the country since 1960.
France has some 1,500 troops in Niger in a bid to fight against jihadism in the Sahel.
“I have no job after studying in this country, because of the regime (of Bazoum), which is supported by France,” said one student who only gave his first name Oumar.
“All that has to go!”The coup has triggered alarm bells in Western countries struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency that flared in northern Mali in 2012, advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso three years later, and now threatens the borders of fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea.
