Niger coup leader calls for support amid claims he is now head of state

Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani, speaking on national television, said the military had intervened ‘to prevent the gradual and inevitable demise of our country’. Photograph: ORTN - Télé Sahel/AFP/Getty Images

Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani, the Nigerien military leader behind the coup against the country’s democratically elected president, has been declared head of state by soldiers backing him as he made a televised address calling for support.

Tchiani, the head of Niger’s presidential guard, which first acted against President Mohamed Bazoum on Wednesday, identified himself as the leader of the group of soldiers behind the coup.