The guest list included two junta leaders: Burkina Faso's Captain Ibrahim Traoré and Niger's General Abdourahamane Tiani both of whom have been supported by the Russian military company Africa Corps the successor to the Wagner Group and now under the direct control of the Ministry of Defence in Moscow (AC Vol 67 No 8 Propaganda swamps social media but Moscow fails to sway the juntas)...

It was Tinubu's gung-ho tactics – threatening a counter-coup and imposing comprehensive sanctions – towards the military in Niger in the aftermath of General Abdourahamane Tiani's coup d'état in July 2023 that triggered the subsequent froideur between the juntas and the civilian-ruled states in Ecowas...

June also saw the new President of Benin Romuald Wadagni touring Ouagadougou Bamako and Niamey – where Wadagni's meeting with head of state General Abdourahamane Tiani defused the antagonism that has kept the Niger-Benin border crucial to regional trade closed for almost three years (AC Vol 67 No 13 Reaching out to the juntas Wadagni redraws regional ties)...

Less than a month after being sworn in Benin's new President Romuald Wadagni has met with Niger's junta leader Abdourahmane Tiani and negotiated the reopening of their common border boosting both economies...

Troops and police swiftly contained what appeared to be a small-cell attack by Islamic State in the Greater Sahara but the incident highlighted the fragility of security across western Niger and underscored why General Abdourahamane Tiani has strong incentives to rebuild a working relationship with his southern neighbour...

His strident anti-imperialist pan-African rhetoric notwithstanding General Abdourahamane Tiani is part of the same mixed military-political revolving door elite that has been in power since Seyni Kountché's 1974 coup...

Traoré is surrounded by a cult of personality far beyond the more routine self-promotion of Mali's President Assimi Goïta or the Nigérien leader Abdourahamane Tiani...

But even greater suspicion came from Abdourahamane Tiani in Niger...

NIGER: MINING POLICIES UNDER SCRUTINY The documents' claims to have caused policy changes by the Niger junta led by General Abdourahamane Tiani don't hold water...