An Assassination That Failed

The April 13 attack on President Diori Hamani of the Republic of Niger was dramatic proof of the political dangers that exist in Western Africa. The circumstances alone of the attempted assassination—in the Grand Mosque of Niamey during the most important religious ceremony of the year—were enough to stir up violent reaction among Moslems in that part of Africa. But Niger also happens to be a member of the Conseil de l’Entente, the most resolutely anti-Communist and pro- Western organization in Africa. (The Conseil de l’Entente consists of four Republics, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Upper Volta and Niger, covering over two million square kilometers of territory from the Sahara—south of Libya and Algeria—southwest to the Atlantic. They have a combined population of thirteen million.) The attempt on President Hamani’s life was for Niger authorities the culmination of six months of disquiet.

In 1959, before Niger had become fully independent from France, remaining an autonomous republic within the French Union, the leftist and violence-ridden Sawaba (Liberty) Party was outlawed. And its leader, Djibo Bakary, (vice president of the Niger cabinet from 1956-1958), a demagogue whose inflammatory harangues had often touched off violence and disorder, was sent into exile. Nothing more was heard of him until early last winter when a military patrol along the Volta frontier intercepted five armed men near the little town of Say. Papers found on the body of Hassan Noussa, the chief of the commandos, indicated the group was under orders from Djibo Bakary to organize a popular revolution. Bakary was now in exile in Ghana where he had been made welcome by Kwame Nkrumah until such time as he could return to Niger.

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Gilbert Comte

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Africa

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The April 13 attack on President Diori Hamani of the Republic of Niger was dramatic proof of the political dangers that exist in Western Africa. The circumstances alone of the attempted assassination—in the Grand Mosque of Niamey during the most important religious ceremony of the year—were enough to stir up violent reaction among Moslems in that part of Africa. But Niger also happens to be a member of the Conseil de l’Entente, the most resolutely anti-Communist and pro- Western organization in Africa. (The Conseil de l’Entente consists of four Republics, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Upper Volta and Niger, covering over two million square kilometers of territory from the Sahara—south of Libya and Algeria—southwest to the Atlantic. They have a combined population of thirteen million.) The attempt on President Hamani’s life was for Niger authorities the culmination of six months of disquiet.

In 1959, before Niger had become fully independent from France, remaining an autonomous republic within the French Union, the leftist and violence-ridden Sawaba (Liberty) Party was outlawed. And its leader, Djibo Bakary, (vice president of the Niger cabinet from 1956-1958), a demagogue whose inflammatory harangues had often touched off violence and disorder, was sent into exile. Nothing more was heard of him until early last winter when a military patrol along the Volta frontier intercepted five armed men near the little town of Say. Papers found on the body of Hassan Noussa, the chief of the commandos, indicated the group was under orders from Djibo Bakary to organize a popular revolution. Bakary was now in exile in Ghana where he had been made welcome by Kwame Nkrumah until such time as he could return to Niger.