Reports emerging from Niger Republic say a coup d’etat is underway. Sources say the president, Bazoum Mohamed, has been held hostage by the Presidential Guards.
The Deployment of weapons and the national guard has been reported. It is also being reported that the Presidential Guards, who have held President Bazoum hostage since the morning, refuses to retreat.
Reports say the Army and the National Guard have deployed around the Presidential Palace, which suggests that not all elements within the country’s armed forces are in support of the putsch.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has condemned the coup attempt, calling on “the coup plotters to free the democratically-elected president of the Republic immediately and without any conditions”.
It also warned that it will hold the plotters responsible for “the security and safety of the president, his family, members of the government, and the general public”.
