Niger’s newly-elected president Mohamed Bazoum is set to be sworn into office on Friday after a democratic watershed overshadowed by jihadist violence and alleged coup bid two days ago.
The inauguration will mark the first-ever transition between elected presidents in Niger’s six decades of independence from France — a historic moment that has been widely praised.
But the Sahel country’s instability and insecurity have been deeply underscored in the run-up to Friday’s ceremony.
In the early hours of Wednesday, after gunfire broke out near the presidency in the capital Niamey, the government announced an “attempted coup” had been thwarted — a “cowardly and regressive act which sought to threaten democracy and the state of law”.
