Leaders of a military coup in Niger refused Monday to allow Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland to meet with the country’s democratically-elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, as he remained under what they called “house arrest.”
Nuland, a leading figure in Democratic Party foreign policy circles — and considered a key figure in the origins of the “Russia collusion” hoax against President Donald Trump — has long been hawkish on Ukraine as well, not without controversy.
Politico reported:
A senior U.S. diplomat said coup leaders in Niger refused to allow her to meet Monday with the West African country’s democratically elected president, whom she described as under “virtual house arrest.”
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She spoke after a two-hour meeting in Niger’s capital, Niamey, with some leaders of the military takeover of a country that has been a vital counterterrorism partner of the United States.
In speaking to junta leaders, Nuland said, she made “absolutely clear the kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored.”
The coup against the formerly pro-American regime, which unfolded last week while the U.S. and France reportedly delayed intervention, has shaken the geopolitics of the African sahel, a strategically-important region on the southern edge of the Sahara.
On the weekend, in a devastating article titled “How the U.S. Fumbled and Gave Russia an Opening,” the Wall Street Journal documented how President Joe Biden’s administration has allowed a series of coups in the region, many of which have led to new governments that align themselves with Russia, frustrating American efforts to fight Islamic terrorist organizations in the region.
The Journal noted that the Biden administration, slow to appoint ambassadors and to act, has made a regional war possible:
A week of missteps and communication breakdowns pushed the vast nation of Niger toward Russia. Nigerien, American, European and other West African security officials, as well as Nigerien soldiers, described a series of unexpected blunders that now threatens to turn West Africa into a theater for regional war.
Washington, caught without key personnel in its Africa posts, failed to anticipate what is now the seventh coup in the region since 2020—not including a failed attempt in Niger two years ago. While Bazoum sat in his safe room calling for help, America and its allies struggled to react as the conflict escalated into threats of war between Russian-backed countries and West Africa’s biggest military, Nigeria.
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“This is your strong ally, your reliable ally, you have invested a lot and then there is a coup without any reason,” said Kiari Liman Tinguiri, Niger’s ambassador to Washington, who was fired by the junta overnight. “It’s very nice to be friends of the West, but it may not be helpful when hard times come.”
Though some appointments are being held up by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the Journal noted, to pressure the Biden administration to release intelligence on the origins of the coronavirus, many key nominations have not even been made yet by the White House.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
