IntelBrief: Niger “Un Mouvement d’humeur,” the Moody Coups in the Sahel Region

Bottom Line Up Front

• Niger’s recent coup is the latest in a string of government upheavals across the Sahel region, sparking significant concerns about spreading violence, conflict, and state failure.
• Heads of state from the fifteen-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on July 30 threatened to respond with force if the Nigerien coup leaders did not reinstate the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.
• If the coup is not reversed, Western governments said they would withdraw military assistance and end security cooperation, which could further open the door for Russian influence to grow and allow violence to spread into coastal West African states.
• The militarization that accompanied Western approaches in a post-9/11 world empowered the same military leaders who are now spurning Washington and turning toward Moscow.