Geography Archives: Niger

Over the past few years, numerous West African states have taken steps toward greater economic and security sovereignty, often in opposition to Western (specifically French) designs on the region.

WEST Africa, which had been largely under French colonial rule, never saw decolonization of the sort that India did.

These are dark days for the empire.

The African Sahel is revolting against western neocolonialism–ejecting foreign troops and bases, devising alternative currencies, and challenging the old multinationals. Multipolarity, after all, cannot flower without resistance paving its path.

Niger declared the U.S. military deployment in its territory “illegal” on Saturday, March 16, after a U.S. delegation allegedly threatened “retaliation” against the largest country in West Africa for its ties with Russia and Iran.

Land area under ECOWAS, which is condemned by West Africa’s popular movements as an agent of French imperialism, has been reduced to less than half after their withdrawal.

Journalist Nick Turse has shown that terrorist attacks have spiked exponentially as a result of the growing U.S. military presence in the Sahelian region.

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are charting a new course—one of increased economic and security sovereignty.

The military governments of three African states, which all deposed their Western-backed leaders in recent years, have agreed to assist each other, individually or collectively, in case of external aggression or internal threats to their sovereignty.

Following the military coup in Niger, ECOWAS decided to impose humiliating and illegitimate sanctions on Niger at the end of the Heads of State conference in Abuja on July 30.

France refuses to withdraw its ambassador and troops from Niger, and reiterates its threat of supporting military invasion by ECOWAS, while the regional bloc itself is “determined to bend backwards to accommodate diplomatic efforts”.

Since its founding, Canada’s ‘left-wing’ party has broadly supported the U.S. empire.

In 1958, the poet and trade union leader Abdoulaye Mamani of Zinder (Niger) won an election in his home region against Hamani Diori, one of the founders of the Nigerien Progressive Party.

Senegalese opposition figure Ousmane Sonko has been on hunger strike for over two weeks against his indictment on new charges. Widely considered the main opposition contender for the 2024 elections, Sonko’s arrest has sparked deadly protests amid anti-government and anti-French anger

Of late however there has been a popular anti-imperialist upsurge in several countries of Francophone Africa. In Guinea, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, new anti-imperialist governments have come to power in the last couple of years that want French troops out of their countries; and in Mali they have even succeeded in getting French troops out.

The recent wave of coups in West Africa must be understood in the context of widespread discontent with the ruling elites and their collaboration with imperialism.

This isn’t what Western countries wanted to sow in West Africa, writes Owen Schalk.

Niger is shaping up to be the surprising frontline of the new Cold War.

Ivory Coast President says the aim of the military operation is to “restore” ousted president Mohamed Bazoum.

Niger is one of the countries located in the Sahel region, perhaps the most historically exploited area in the world. It is the southern fringe of the Sahara, which divides the Maghreb from sub-Saharan Africa.