Stephane De Sakutin/ Pool via REUTERS
Niger President Mohamad Bazoum has been held captive in his palace by presidential guards in the capital city of Niamey, leading to a standoff between the captors and the Niger army, according to multiple reports.
“Elements of the Presidential Guard had a fit of temper… and tried unsuccessfully to gain the support of the national armed forces and the national guard,” the Nigerian presidential office said in a Twitter statement Wednesday, adding that the army had given the guards an “ultimatum” to “attack [the guards] involved in this fit of temper if they do not return to a better disposition.”
The president and members of his family have so far remained unharmed in the incident, which has been blasted as an “attempted coup d’etat” by the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).