On July 26 a military coup took place in the West African nation of Niger and today the drumbeat of war is sounding in that region as a coalition of African countries, acting at the behest of France and the United States, prepare to militarily intervene in Niger to restore the government that was overthrown. Because the new military government in Niger has done some very strange things since taking power last month: it has moved to nationalize the country’s natural resources, it has ordered French and U.S. troops to leave the country, it has sought to assert the Nigerien people’s sovereignty over their own land. And this is not something the American Empire and its various European appendages can tolerate. Niger is a rich country, like so many countries in the Global South, even though its people are poor. Its soil is full of gold reserves and the uranium supplies that France uses to power its nuclear industry. It’s the home of the biggest U.S. military base in West Africa. Its previous government was completely at the beck and call of Western corporations and military officials, even as its own people suffered in extreme poverty. There is a reason why, according to recent polls, 78% of Nigeriens supported the coup and pro-coup rallies have been attracting tens of thousands of participants. This is a nationalist coup, a progressive coup, in defiance of Western imperialism. In recent years, similar progressive coups have taken place in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, all with the aim of expelling Western troops and asserting national sovereignty in political and economic terms. Mali and Burkina Faso have nationalized their gold reserves, kicked out Western mining companies, and now the West is afraid of the same happening in Niger. This time they seem hell-bent on military intervention, because they view Niger as too strategic to lose.
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