Who is Niger coup leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani? - video Dailymotion

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00:00 We begin in Niger, where the general who led Wednesday's coup to oust the president has

00:04 taken to the airwaves.

00:06 General Abdelrahman Chiani justifying his actions, saying the military was left with

00:10 no choice given the worsening security situation in Niger.

00:14 Take a listen.

00:17 No, the current approach to security has not allowed us to make the country secure.

00:23 Despite the heavy sacrifice made by Nigerians and the considerable and valued support of

00:29 our external partners.

00:31 No, the results aren't meeting Nigerians' expectations.

00:36 No, we can no longer continue with the same approaches that have been proposed until now

00:43 due to the risk of seeing our country gradually and inevitably disappear.

00:49 That's why we have decided to intervene and take responsibility.

00:56 We can now go across to our regional correspondent, Sam Bradby.

00:59 Sam, what more do we know about General Chiani?

01:05 Chiani is in his 60s.

01:06 He's been head of the presidential guard since 2011.

01:11 This is a unit essentially charged with preventing military takeovers from happening in the first

01:17 place.

01:18 Now, the general himself has previously been tied to an attempted coup in 2015, but clearly

01:25 he remained in his post and was later cleared of wrongdoing on that matter.

01:31 Local press in Niger prior to this coup had reported that the president, Mohamed Fahdoum,

01:36 was planning on replacing the general with someone else, leading some to speculate that

01:41 perhaps this coup has been motivated to some extent, at least by personal ambition.

01:46 Although, of course, that's very difficult to verify at this point.

01:50 As you just heard in that clip from the general himself, he's justified his actions by focusing

01:57 on, well, by saying that the junta will address some of the security and notably economic

02:02 issues as well that Niger is currently facing.

02:06 And Sam, how have regional players been reacting to this coup?

02:12 Well, the African Union and the regional bloc, ECOWAS, have condemned the coup in very strong

02:18 words.

02:19 They have reported that the president of Benin, Patrice Talon, is currently leading

02:24 a mediation mission on behalf of ECOWAS alongside envoys from Nigeria.

02:30 Although, once again, I think what we've seen in Niger has shown to some extent the limits

02:36 of ECOWAS in maintaining security and maintaining stability across the region.

02:41 Remember that in recent years we have seen successful coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and

02:46 Guinea.

02:48 And so really, I think what this shows is perhaps some of those limitations that ECOWAS

02:52 currently faces.

Who is Niger coup leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani?

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