Sydney (Australia) (BLAZETRENDS) As a result of the coup d’état, it threatens to put an end to “millions of dollars” of development aid for the African country.
Matt Miller, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that in two phone calls with Bazoum and former Niger president Mahamadou Issoufou, Blinken stressed that “the US. it will continue working to guarantee the complete restoration of the democratic and constitutional order” after the coup on Wednesday.
serious concern
The Secretary of State, on an official visit to Australia, highlighted “the importance” of Bazoum’s leadership, who underlined his role in “promoting security not only in Niger but in the West African region,” according to Miller.
In addition, Blinken showed Issoufou his “grave concern” about the arrest of Bazoum and the apparent blockade to restore constitutional order, and warned that the captors of the democratically elected leader “threaten years of successful cooperation and millions of dollars of assistance that help to the Nigerian people.
A group of soldiers, organized in a platform calling itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CLSP), announced on Wednesday that it had overthrown Bazoum, shortly after detaining the president at the Presidential Palace in Niamey.
The coup attempt in Niger is the second suffered by the African country after the Nigerien authorities aborted a military coup attempt against Bazoum on March 31, 2021 two days before his inauguration, which was limited to a series of shootings near the Presidential Palace.
