Niger coup leaders promise fresh elections

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A spokesman for the coup leaders said they would draft a new constitution and hold elections, but did not say when.

Mr Tandja – seized during a cabinet meeting on Thursday – was being held at a house in the capital Niamey, he said.

Delegations from the UN and the West African regional body Ecowas have been in Niger for meetings with the junta.

Calm

In the third coup in the West Africa in the last 18 months, troops stormed the presidential palace in Niamey during a cabinet meeting, seizing Mr Tandja and his ministers before announcing that they were suspending the constitution and dissolving all state institutions.

Calling themselves the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, the coup leaders promised to turn Niger into an example of "democracy and good governance" and save its people from "poverty, deception and corruption".

A senior army officer, Col Salou Djibo, was named head of a military government.

After discussions on Sunday with Ecowas Commission President Mohamed Ibn Chambas, a spokesman for the military authorities said a new constitution would be created to replace the one amended in August that abolished limits on presidential terms of office.

Col Djibrilla Hima Hamidou compared Thursday’s coup to the country’s last one in 1999, when the then military leader, Col Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, was assassinated but civilian rule was restored in a year.

"This is not an army with a putschist tradition, that is not the case," he told reporters. "In 1999 we had a similar situation. We gave power back and we had 10 years of stability.

Source: BBC NEWS