The Niger

On 26 July 2023, sections of the armed forces arrested Niger’s President, Mohamed Bazoum, and announced that he had been deposed. Since this military coup took place, the BMZ has temporarily suspended its bilateral development cooperation with the central government. This includes ongoing projects by GIZ and KfW (with the exception of the BMZ’s crisis instruments). The BMZ’s crisis instruments and cooperation with non-governmental organisations and civil society are being continued. The BMZ is consulting with its partners about how to proceed moving forward.

For more information, see the website of the Federal Foreign Office:

• Press release 27 July 2023: Federal Foreign Office statement on the latest developments in Niger (External link)

The West African country gained its independence from France in 1960. The decades that followed were marked by a changing parade of military governments and several coups. From 1999 to 2009, the Niger was governed by the democratically elected President Mamadou Tandja, under whose leadership the country managed to attain a certain degree of stability. Hopes that the Niger would achieve democratisation and economic development went unfulfilled, however, as Tandja’s rule became increasingly autocratic.

Having refused to step down in 2009 after the maximum of two terms in office as prescribed under the country’s constitution, Tandja was ousted in a military coup in 2010. A new constitution affording more civil rights was devised, which was approved by the people of the Niger in a referendum. In early 2011, elections were held at the municipal, regional and national levels. Mahamadou Issoufou, a long-time opposition leader, won the presidential elections in 2011; in 2016 he was re-elected for a further term in office.

In February 2021, the country saw the first ever transition from one democratically elected leader to another. The winner of the presidential elections, in which Issoufou was not allowed to participate after two terms in office, was former interior minister Mohamed Bazoum of the governing Party for Democracy and Socialism (Parti nigérien pour la démocratie et le socialisme, PNDS).

The Niger government has set itself ambitious development goals. They include reducing poverty and food insecurity, strengthening and consolidating democracy, improving the country’s governance, promoting girls' education, boosting economic development and stabilising the security situation.