Niger, 2021 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 31 March 2021 a coup was attempted in Niger, just days before the president elect Mohamed Bazoum was due to be inaugurated, when a military unit attacked the presidential palace in the capital Niamey in the pre dawn hours but was repelled by the presidential guard after a fierce firefight. The attempt came at a pivotal moment: Bazoum had won a February runoff election to succeed the outgoing president Mahamadou Issoufou, in what was set to be Niger's first ever peaceful, democratic transfer of power between elected presidents, a milestone in a country and region long plagued by coups. In the early hours of 31 March, an army officer led an armored unit in an assault on the presidential palace, exchanging heavy gunfire with the guard before the attackers were driven off and a number arrested; Bazoum was not at the palace and was unharmed.

The government swiftly contained the plot, and Bazoum was inaugurated as scheduled on 2 April, completing the historic transition. But the reprieve proved temporary. Bazoum survived this attempt and another in 2022, only to be overthrown and detained by his own presidential guard in a successful coup in July 2023.