Feb. 23, 2010
By Todd Pitman
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) - It's politics, upside down.
The elected president of a uranium-rich nation morphs into a despot and refuses to relinquish power, prompting the army to stage a popular coup with guns blazing in the name of democracy.
Most governments check executive excesses through sister branches - the legislature, the judiciary. In Niger, the military has assumed the bizarre yet vital role of safeguarding democratic institutions by force - most recently by blowing a hole through the front gate of the presidential palace last week and taking hostage an entire government.
Balancing Arms
Niger: Once-taboo topic of hunger spoken again
February 26, 2010
By Todd Pitman
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) - They are simple words humanitarian workers in Africa use often but dared not speak in this impoverished nation: hunger, starvation.
And definitely not famine.
For years, President Mamadou Tandja denied there was any food crisis in Niger, even when images were broadcast of skeletal children too weak to brush away flies. Now that the military has ousted Tandja, aid agencies are speaking out, with good reason: The country is facing its worst food shortage in years.
West Africa's Last Giraffes
Nov. 7, 2009
By Todd Pitman
KOURE, Niger (AP) _ A crisp African dawn is breaking overhead, and Zibo Mounkaila is on the back of a pickup truck bounding across a sparse landscape of rocky orange soil.
The tallest animals on earth are here, the guide says, somewhere amid the scant green bush on one side, and the thatched dome villages on the other.
They're here, but by all accounts, they shouldn't be.
Slow Motion Coup
Aug. 3, 2009
By Todd Pitman
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) _ His opponents call it the "slow-motion coup."
Despite promising to step down in December at the end of his two-term limit, the leader of this uranium-rich desert nation is waging a fierce political battle to stay in power, and critics say he has morphed from democrat to dictator to do it.
Over a span of several months, 71-year-old President Mamadou Tandja has imposed rule by decree, cracked down on opponents and the press, and dismantled parliament and the constitutional court, which oppose his plan and together represented the last real checks on his rule.