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Reports: Soldiers Have Taken Niger President

   Reports  from Niamey say soldiers have stormed the presidential palace
   and left with President Mammadou Tandja.

   Scott Stearns | Dakar 18 February 2010
   In  this  Friday,  July  31,  2009  file photo Niger President Mamadou
   Tandja  speaks to journalists at the presidential residence in Niamey,
   Niger

Photo: AP

   In  this  Friday,  July  31,  2009  file photo Niger President Mamadou
   Tandja  speaks to journalists at the presidential residence in Niamey,
   Niger

   Witnesses  reported  heavy  gunfire  and smoke around the presidential
   palace  Thursday  afternoon,  in what officials called a coup attempt.
   The  Associated  Press  quotes  a  palace driver who said the soldiers
   entered during a meeting of government ministers, and a local reporter
   says they left with President Tandja.
   It was not immediately clear who was involved.
   Soldiers were seen near the palace and nearby streets were deserted.

   Government  ministers  were  scheduled  to  gather at the palace for a
   meeting  about  that time. State radio has made no announcement on the
   events and is playing traditional music.
   But  private  radio  stations  reported  smoke  rising from inside the
   compound  and  businesses  closed  in  much  of  the  area  around the
   presidential palace.
   Speaking  to  reporters  in Ethiopia, African Union Peace and Security
   Commissioner  Ramtane  Lamamra  says the alliance is following closely
   what is going on in Niamey.
   "We are always concerned whenever there is a report of a coup to be in
   the  making  or  even  the  threat of a coup because this obviously is
   contrary  to  what we aspire for the continent to be: a continent free
   of  unconstitutional  changes  of  government. So we will be following
   closely the news," Lamamra said.
   President Mamadou Tandja extended his time in office beyond his second
   five-year  term  which  expired  in  December. His political opponents
   boycotted  an  August referendum that changed the constitution to give
   him  another  three  years  in  power  and  removed term limits so the
   71-year-old leader may run again after that if he wishes.
   Niger's  constitutional  court and parliament said that referendum was
   illegal. President Tandja dismissed both bodies and replaced them with
   a new court and new assembly that support his new government.
   Asked  if  the  president's  opponents  might then have reason to move
   against him, African Union Commissioner Lamamra says all coups must be
   condemned with the same energy.
   "There  are  no good or bad coup d'etat. All of them are bad," Lamamra
   said.
   The  Economic  Community  of  West African States suspended Niger over
   what  it  says  is  unconstitutional  political  change. At its annual
   meeting in Abuja this week, ECOWAS refused to reinstate Niger until it
   resolves the political crisis.
   Regional  mediation  by former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar
   has  so  far  made  little  progress with the government rejecting any
   power  sharing  arrangement  that refuses to recognize the creation of
   this  new  government under the new constitution. West African leaders
   are  now  expanding  their  negotiating  team  to  include  Senegalese
   President Abdoulaye Wade and a representative from the African Union.

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