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00:00 We begin in Niger, where the general who led Wednesday's coup to oust the president has
00:04 taken to the airwaves.
00:06 General Abdelrahman Chiani justifying his actions, saying the military was left with
00:10 no choice given the worsening security situation in Niger.
00:14 Take a listen.
00:17 No, the current approach to security has not allowed us to make the country secure.
00:23 Despite the heavy sacrifice made by Nigerians and the considerable and valued support of
00:29 our external partners.
00:31 No, the results aren't meeting Nigerians' expectations.
00:36 No, we can no longer continue with the same approaches that have been proposed until now
00:43 due to the risk of seeing our country gradually and inevitably disappear.
00:49 That's why we have decided to intervene and take responsibility.
00:56 We can now go across to our regional correspondent, Sam Bradby.
00:59 Sam, what more do we know about General Chiani?
01:05 Chiani is in his 60s.
01:06 He's been head of the presidential guard since 2011.
01:11 This is a unit essentially charged with preventing military takeovers from happening in the first
01:17 place.
01:18 Now, the general himself has previously been tied to an attempted coup in 2015, but clearly
01:25 he remained in his post and was later cleared of wrongdoing on that matter.
01:31 Local press in Niger prior to this coup had reported that the president, Mohamed Fahdoum,
01:36 was planning on replacing the general with someone else, leading some to speculate that
01:41 perhaps this coup has been motivated to some extent, at least by personal ambition.
01:46 Although, of course, that's very difficult to verify at this point.
01:50 As you just heard in that clip from the general himself, he's justified his actions by focusing
01:57 on, well, by saying that the junta will address some of the security and notably economic
02:02 issues as well that Niger is currently facing.
02:06 And Sam, how have regional players been reacting to this coup?
02:12 Well, the African Union and the regional bloc, ECOWAS, have condemned the coup in very strong
02:18 words.
02:19 They have reported that the president of Benin, Patrice Talon, is currently leading
02:24 a mediation mission on behalf of ECOWAS alongside envoys from Nigeria.
02:30 Although, once again, I think what we've seen in Niger has shown to some extent the limits
02:36 of ECOWAS in maintaining security and maintaining stability across the region.
02:41 Remember that in recent years we have seen successful coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and
02:46 Guinea.
02:48 And so really, I think what this shows is perhaps some of those limitations that ECOWAS
02:52 currently faces.