U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone conversation on Aug. 8 with the ousted Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum. “Spoke to Nigerien President Bazoum to express our continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the current constitutional crisis. The United States reiterates our call for the immediate release of him and his family,” he wrote yesterday on the X social network.
While the U.S. is endeavoring to prevent Russia from gaining from the situation, Blinken said he saw no Russian hand behind the coup. In an interview with the BBC, Blinken admitted that Bazoum’s ouster was “not instigated by Russia or by Wagner,” but warned that Wagner would “try to take advantage of it.”
Blinken apparently did not indicate he spoke with any of Niger’s new leaders or whether he had made a request and was refused.
