In Niger, eleven months after the coup d’état of July 26, 2023 and while all diplomatic initiatives to free the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum have failed, two new groups have engaged in an armed rebellion against the regime of General Abdourahamane Tiani . Their stated objective: to obtain the release of the head of state deposed by force of arms and the return to constitutional order.
The first, called the Patriotic Front for Justice (FPJ), claimed responsibility for the kidnapping on Friday of Commander Amadou Torda, prefect of Bilma, a town in northeastern Niger, and four members of the security forces who accompanied him. In a statement published on Sunday, June 23, this political-military group created in the aftermath of the putsch claims that two people were killed during this operation, considered as a ” message ” addressed to the putschists.
“We are going to pull all the necessary strings so that these putschists who are leading our country into an impasse back down, free President Bazoum and organize elections”said an FPJ executive, joined by The World Africa. According to him, the group, led by Mahamat Tori, a trained nurse from the surroundings of Bilma, where he prospered in gold panning, has around a hundred fighters. In a video posted online Monday, the FPJ called “ all sincere and resilient patriots to join him” before greeting “the CRR front [Conseil de la résistance pour la République] and the FPL [Front patriotique de libération] who work in the same dynamic”.
“We will no longer let the oil flow”
Created in August 2023 by Rhissa Ag-Boula, a figure in the Tuareg rebellions of 1991 and 2007, who subsequently became advisor to Mohamed Bazoum, the CRR has not claimed any attacks. However, he announced that he had joined forces with the FPL in a joint press release published on May 22, to “ the eventual creation of a coordination of all the movements engaged in this path”. According to our information, discussions are underway for the FPJ to join forces with those of the FPL.
The latter claimed responsibility for the explosive attack which damaged, on June 16, a section of the pipeline carrying Nigerien oil to neighboring Benin, from where the crude is then exported. This group, created like the other two in the aftermath of the putsch, in August 2023, also demands the release of Mohamed Bazoum, as well as a fairer distribution of income from oil for nomadic communities living in oil deposit areas.
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