1. Abdourahamane Tchiani is a Nigerien military officer who is the president of Niger since 2025 and the president of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, the military junta of Niger, since 2023.
17 Facts About Abdourahamane Tchiani
1. 2.
Abdourahamane Tchiani had served as the Chief of the Nigerien Presidential guard.
3.
Abdourahamane Tchiani played a key role in the 2023 Nigerien coup d'etat by detaining President Mohamed Bazoum.
4.
Abdourahamane Tchiani's coup triggered the Nigerien crisis, which ended in 2024.
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Abdourahamane Tchiani is from the Tillaberi Region, a main recruitment area for the Nigerien army in the west of the country.
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Abdourahamane Tchiani joined the army in 1984 and studied at the National School of Active Officers in Thies, Senegal.
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Abdourahamane Tchiani served in UN peacekeeping missions in the Ivory Coast, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
8.
Abdourahamane Tchiani served in the Multinational Joint Task Force set up by Niger, Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram.
9.
In 2011, Tchiani assumed command of the Presidential guards and was a close ally of then-President Mahamadou Issoufou, who promoted him to general in 2018.
10.
In 2015, Abdourahamane Tchiani was accused of involvement in a coup plot against Issoufou but denied the charges in court.
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Abdourahamane Tchiani was otherwise seen as keeping his views to himself during that time.
12.
In 2021, Abdourahamane Tchiani led the unit that thwarted an attempted coup; at the time a military unit tried to seize the Presidential palace two days before Issoufou stepped down to make way for his democratically elected successor, Mohamed Bazoum, who retained Abdourahamane Tchiani in his post.
13.
On 26 July 2023, Abdourahamane Tchiani led the Presidential guards in detaining President Bazoum in the Presidential palace in the capital Niamey as part of the 2023 Nigerien coup d'etat.
14.
Abdourahamane Tchiani criticized the Government's security strategy for its purported ineffectiveness.
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Shortly afterwards, during a meeting with a delegation from ECOWAS, Abdourahamane Tchiani proposed a three-year window for a transition to civilian rule.
16.
In December 2024, Abdourahamane Tchiani accused France and Nigeria of colluding with rebel groups to destabilize the Nigerien government, as well as accusing Nigeria of sabotaging the oil pipeline to Benin.
17.
Abdourahamane Tchiani was formally sworn in as president on 26 March 2025, for the term of five years, and promoted to the rank of general.