Geopolitical Maps

A band of coups now crosses the Sahel of Africa from Guinea to Sudan, with the latest one being Niger (third from the right). Niger is an extremely poor and isolated West African nation. It is right in the middle of the Sahel region, which is an rural arid strip between the Sahara and tropical west and central Africa. It is also the poorest region in the world.

Poverty is a reality for the vast majority of Nigerien citizens. And for the past decade, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram had lead frequent jihadist insurgencies throughout the country. The unpopular president, and one of Niger’s only democratically elected ones in its history, Mohamed Bazoum, was deposed by the junta leader Abdourahamane Tchiani.

All countries in West Africa are members of ECOWAS, or the Economic Community of West African States, a sort of less effective European Union for the region. ECOWAS has suspended all four junta-led members: Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and now Niger.

The major economic powerhouses in the bloc – Cote d’Ivore, Ghana, and most importantly Nigeria have threatened to invade Niger in order to reverse the coup. Recently, ECOWAS demanded a seven day ultimatum for Niger to reverse the coup or face obliteration.

The junta ignored the threat, and as they predicted, ECOWAS did nothing after a week passed. War mongering from both sides has since taken place. Perhaps most importantly, however, is that Nigeria has placed brutal economic sanctions on its northern neighbor, already causing enormous food shortages in one of the poorest countries in the world.