A former rebel leader and politician in Niger, Rhissa Ag Boula has launched a movement opposing the military government that took power in a July 26 coup, a first sign of internal resistance to army rule in the strategically important Sahel country.
seen on Wednesday, Boula said his new Council of Resistance for the Republic aims to reinstate overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum who has been in detention at his residence since the takeover, Reuters reports.
Niger’s coup leaders denied entry to African and United Nations envoys on Tuesday, resisting pressure to negotiate before a summit on Thursday at which heads of state from the ECOWAS will discuss the possible use of force. Ag Boula played a leading role in uprisings by Tuaregs, a nomadic ethnic group present in Niger’s desert north, in the 1990s and 2000s. Like many former rebels, he was integrated into government under Bazoum and his predecessor Mahamadou Issoufou.
Democratic ECOWAS member states such as Nigeria want the reinstatement of the civilian government that had been relatively successful in containing a deadly campaign by armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL which has devastated the Sahel region.
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