Authorities say an “attempted coup” was carried out overnight Tuesday through March 31 in Niamey. Many residents of the capital were suddenly awakened at 3 o’clock by heavy gunfire that lasted less than half an hour.
Shooting in the city center, in the administrative district, close to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidency. The leader of the attackers, Captain Gourouza, is said to be on the run. He is today the most sought after man in Niger.
Forty-eight hours before the inauguration of the new president of the republic, investigations continue to actively identify the perpetrators and accomplices of the “coup attempt”. According to confirmatory sources, at least 15 soldiers were arrested for the investigation.
The soldiers arrested during the raid and others arrested elsewhere would have admitted that they were under the command of Captain Gourouza, this air force officer who according to other sources managed to cross the city of Niamey d east to west, from the airport to the outskirts of the presidential palace, with heavy weapons without to be discovered.
“We have been seeing them for a few weeks,” confirms a high-level security source. Today we took them by the hand, they shot our soldiers, he says. Captain Gourouza, whose pictures are available on social media, is the most wanted man in Niger. All intelligence services are on his heels.
At the Presidential Palace, this attempt did not hinder the normal functioning of the institutions. On Wednesday, Mahamadou Issoufou chaired the inauguration of two new members of the Constitutional Court and the resignation of the president’s staff.
