Six Nigerien officers - three colonels, a captain and two lieutenants - in custody were dismissed last week from the ranks of the Nigerien army for their alleged involvement in a coup attempt in 2021, a government source said on Saturday and the press.
“
Officers were disbarred last week from the army in connection with the March 2021 coup attempt,
” a Nigerian official told AFP, confirming information on these disbarments published in the local press. and social networks.
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"
All the soldiers who have been discharged are already imprisoned and there are none free
," said this official, who did not specify their identities.
According to the online newspaper Air-Info, among these officers are Colonel Djibo Hamani, Colonel Major Aboubacar Oumarou, Lieutenant Colonel Seydou Mourtala Diori, Captain Saley Gourouza, Lieutenant Abdourahamane Morou Idrissa and Lieutenant Boubacar Bagouma.
An aborted putsch
All "
have just been struck off the staff of the Niger Armed Forces (FAN) by the staff for serious misconduct in connection with the attempted coup of March 31, 2021
", underlines the newspaper.
We do not know the charges against them or the role they may have played in this aborted putsch.
On March 31, 2021, the Nigerien government announced the arrest of several people after an attempted coup, two days before the swearing in of current President Mohamed Bazoum.
The alleged "
mastermind
" of this coup attempt, Sani Gourouza, an air force captain, was arrested in April 2021 in neighboring Benin and handed over to the Nigerien authorities.
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In mid-April, Ousmane Cissé, the former Nigerien Minister of the Interior under the military transition (2010-2011) was imprisoned for his alleged involvement in the failed putsch of March 2021. The arrest of Ousmane Cissé "
is also in connection with a last foiled coup in March 2022, while President Bazoum was in Turkey
,” the Nigerian official added.
Ousmane Cissé was ambassador for Chad and the Central African Republic from 2016 to last February.
The authorities did not communicate publicly on this second failed putsch.
In January 2018, nine soldiers and a civilian were sentenced by a Nigerien military court to five to fifteen years in prison for having attempted to overthrow former President Mahamadou Issoufou in 2015.
Among the condemned soldiers is General Souleymane Salou, former chief of staff and ex-member of the junta which overthrew President Mamadou Tandja.
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