Niger: Ex-Rebel Leader Ag Boula Announces Anti-Coup Movement

Rhissa Ag Boula, a former rebel leader and politician in Niger, has launched a movement opposing the junta that took power in a July 26 coup.

Ag Boula disclosed this position in a statement on Wednesday.According to him, his new Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) aimed to reinstate ousted Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who had been in detention at his residence since the take-over.

“Niger is the victim of a tragedy orchestrated by peoplecharged with protecting it,” the statement said.

Recall that ECOWAS slammed the Niger junta with a fresh sanction after the seven-day ultimatum to restore Bazoum.

Diplomatic intervention by the US, AU, and ECOWAS yielded no results.

ECOWAS has fixed Thursday for a meeting to discuss the way forward for Niger.

Meanwhile, military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea had expressed solidarity with their counterparts in Niger.

Ag Boula led uprisings by Tuaregs, a nomadic ethnic group in Niger’s desert north, in the 1990s and 2000s.