Boureima Amadou
Eighteen months after the 26 July 2023 putsch, the patriotic display mounted by Niger’s military leadership is visibly coming apart. Behind the sovereignist slogans and the parades organised by the Conseil national pour la sauvegarde de la patrie (CNSP), the way the war is actually being fought on the ground tells a far darker story. The country’s security forces are not simply suffocating under unrelenting pressure along the borders — they are disintegrating from within. The wave of soldiers walking away from their units has become the most telling evidence that General Abdourahamane Tiani no longer commands the confidence of a broad section of his own troops.
The army that no longer believes in its own command
What began as scattered acts of insubordination has hardened into a steady haemorrhage of manpower. Dozens of servicemen, stripped of their illusions and left to fend for themselves in remote garrisons, are choosing to disappear. Worse still for Niamey, these men are not quietly returning to civilian life: they take their tactical expertise, and in some cases their weapons, straight into the ranks of armed opposition movements and jihadist organisations.
From government uniforms to the bush
Experienced fighters bolster the Front Patriotique pour la Libération
A significant contingent of battle-hardened personnel has thrown its lot in with the Front Patriotique pour la Libération (FPL), the rebel movement led by Mahmoud Sadi, which is calling for a return to constitutional rule and the release of the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum. By joining the FPL, these former soldiers lend the group a worrying tactical credibility, turning a purely political rebellion into a structured paramilitary force capable of striking strategic assets — among them the oil pipeline that links Niger to Benin.
A red line crossed towards Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin
Even more troubling for regional stability, some troops have gone a step further and enlisted with Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the Sahel. Driven by despair, a sense of abandonment or simple material need, these onetime regular soldiers hand the militants intimate knowledge of the local security grid, leaving military bases in the west of the country more exposed than at any point in recent years.
Rationed fuel, worn-out armour and empty ammunition stores
How did it reach this point? In the field, the resentment of ordinary soldiers is rooted in living and fighting conditions that have become unbearable. Whatever the regime’s martial rhetoric, the supplies never arrive. Units pushed onto the burning front lines of Tillabéri and Diffa are grappling with an acute shortage of the most basic means.
Spare parts for the armoured vehicle fleet are unavailable, fuel is doled out in rations, and reserve ammunition is burned through quickly during firefights. The soldiers face mobile armed groups equipped with light drones and modern assault rifles while they themselves frequently lack elementary body armour or secure communication systems. On top of this material hardship come repeated delays in the payment of risk bonuses and inadequate care for the wounded brought back from the front. The perceived gulf between the comfort enjoyed by the junta’s senior figures in Niamey and the destitution of the soldier in combat feeds a durable bitterness.
The night of 28-29 August: foreign bullets on Nigerien soil
The troops’ distrust of the highest levels of power passed the point of no return at the end of the summer. Overnight on 28-29 August, an extremely grave episode laid bare the gaping rift between the ranks and the general staff: an attempted uprising that was put down in blood, with the regime’s Russian allies at the centre of it.
Confronted with mounting dissent inside several units of the national army, the junta turned to Russian operatives from Africa Corps to lock down sensitive sites and crush any appetite for mutiny. During those nocturnal clashes, Russian mercenaries opened fire directly on Nigerien servicemen. Several national soldiers lost their lives to foreign bullets on their own soil — a tragedy that sent shockwaves and furious indignation through the barracks.
For the non-commissioned officers, watching a regime that brands itself sovereignist order foreign mercenaries to shoot at its own troops amounts to the ultimate betrayal. That night, General Tiani’s moral authority in the eyes of the lower ranks collapsed.
A regime held captive by the institution that crowned it
Far from the image of a united and unshakeable military power, Niger’s junta today looks weakened by the very base that lifted it to power. By answering neither the logistical needs of its soldiers nor the population’s longing for stability, General Tiani finds himself increasingly isolated. The scale of the desertions and the flight of skills towards rebellion and jihadism show that Niger’s army is refusing to serve as cannon fodder for a leadership whose objectives it no longer shares. If the fracture keeps widening at the present pace, the gravest threat to the CNSP will not come from beyond the borders — it will rise from inside its own barracks.
