Niamey: Three more senior politicians from the overthrown government were detained by the military junta in Niger on Monday, according to their party, expanding arrests in defiance of international calls to reinstate democracy.
Sources claim that the regional central bank cancelled Niger's planned 30 billion CFA ($51 million) bond issuance, scheduled for Monday in the West African regional debt market, as a result of sanctions as unrest from the takeover spread from the streets to the markets.
The removal of elected President Mohamed Bazoum by the junta last week—the seventh military coup in less than three years in West and Central Africa—has drawn condemnation from the African Union, the UN, the EU, and other nations.
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Concerns about the Sahel region's security have been raised in the wake of the coup.
With troops stationed in Niger, the US, former colonial power France, and other Western nations have been assisting the government in battling militant groups with ties to Daesh and Al-Qaeda.
The fact that Niger is the seventh-largest producer of uranium, the radioactive metal used for nuclear energy and the treatment of cancer, in the world has also increased Western concern over the coup.
The head of the ruling party and oil minister of the deposed government, Mahamane Sani Mahamadou, who is also the son of former President Issoufou Mahamadou, were both detained by junta forces, according to the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, or PNDS-Tarayya.
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It also stated that the transport minister, interior minister, and a constable had already been taken into custody.
The party said in a statement that the arrests prove the coup leaders' "repressive and dictatorial" nature and urged people to band together to defend democracy.
A day after Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby arrived in Niger to attempt to mediate between the coup leaders and the overthrown government, the arrests were made public.
He shared what appeared to be the first pictures of Bazoum since the takeover late on Sunday, showing him grinning and seemingly unharmed. Deby made the vague statement that he was looking for "a peaceful solution."
Bazoum was imprisoned in his palace by members of his guard on Wednesday. The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has imposed sanctions on Niger, including a halt to all financial transactions and a national asset freeze, and has threatened to use force to restore him to power.
According to a regional debt management agency issuance calendar, Niger, one of the world's poorest nations that heavily depends on foreign aid and financing, was scheduled to issue two additional bonds in the regional market on August 7 and August 17, in addition to the cancelled July issuance.
Later on Sunday, the junta claimed that France also intended to conduct an operation to release Bazoum.
Although the French Foreign Ministry declined to confirm or deny the allegation, it did state that Paris acknowledged Bazoum as the sole legitimate leader of the nation of West Africa and was primarily concerned with safeguarding its own citizens and interests there.
Earlier, the junta issued a warning against any foreign attempts to seize Bazoum, claiming that such actions would cause bloodshed and mayhem.
Following military coups in the neighbouring countries of Mali and Burkina Faso over the previous two years, all of which occurred amid a wave of anti-French sentiment, came the coup in Niger.
Both nations have been gravitating more and more towards Russia as an ally.
In the Nigerian capital Niamey, junta supporters attacked the French Embassy on Sunday, burning French flags and inciting police to use tear gas.
The leaders of the coup, who have appointed Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani, the former head of the presidential guard, as the new head of state, claimed that Bazoum's poor leadership and his handling of the Islamist threat were to blame for his downfall.
Last week, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, praised the coup in Niger and offered his forces to restore law and order.
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The Kremlin demanded a prompt restoration of constitutional order on Monday, stating that the situation in Niger was "cause for serious concern".
The situation was still fluid, according to the German Foreign Ministry, and there was a chance the coup could fall apart