We hear that senior officials had been pursuing further inquiries into individuals linked to that arms procurement scandal at the time of the overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July...

He commissioned the Inspector-General of the armed forces and the national police – notably not the public prosecutor – to carry out the audit which landed on his and the President's desks in February 2020 just as PNDS officials were devising the election strategy for Issoufou's designated successor Mohamed Bazoum his right-hand man for the previous 10 years...

The political class in Niamey and sundry intelligence sources had been speculating about the possibility of President Mohamed Bazoum's overthrow for months...

NIAMEY JUNTA TESTS REGIONAL RESOLVE ON COUPS West African leaders' hard-line stance towards General Abdourahamane Tiani's military junta in Niamey which is holding President Mohamed Bazoum and his family prisoner in the presidential residence risks serious confrontation with the putschists...

But further east in the specific local context of the tri-border region JNIM's evolving stance may chime with efforts by Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum to persuade local jihadist leaders to abandon their armed struggle...

President Mohamed Bazoum has tried to sell the alliance with France to the Nigérien public but Paris has to tread more carefully in Burkina...

In June's Ecowas talks Ouattara adopted a doveish line calling for more sanctions to be lifted and winning over more hardline figures such as the Nigérien president Mohamed Bazoum...

Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum even describing the group as 'dead' in May...

' This was the verdict of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on 18 May three days after the Malian military regime announced its withdrawal from all institutions of the G5 Sahel the body once heralded as the key to stabilising a region beset by Islamist insurgencies...

Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum welcomed the cut which was condemned by Mali's Prime Minister Choguel Maïga as 'abandonment in mid-flight' after which France and other EU states pulled Barkhane and Takuba out of from Mali as trust was lost (AC Vol 63 No 4 France moves out of Mali)...

In early April President Mohamed Bazoum declared that the force 'has lead in its wings it's undeniable...