Niamey
Niger's capital imports two-thirds of its electricity through one wire from Nigeria — which was cut within a week of the 2023 coup, revealing total dependency on whichever patron it's attached to.
Niger imports more than two-thirds of its electricity from Nigeria through a single high-voltage line. When military officers overthrew President Bazoum in July 2023, Nigeria disconnected that line within a week. Niamey went dark — and discovered exactly how dependent a capital can be on a neighbour it just antagonised.
The coup triggered ECOWAS's strictest sanctions ever imposed on a member state: closed borders, frozen assets, suspended financial transactions. Niger cut its national budget by 40%, from $5.3 billion to $1.98 billion. Food prices rose 25-30%. Businesses that couldn't source diesel for generators shut permanently. The sanctions hit civilians harder than the generals, and ECOWAS partially lifted them in February 2024 on humanitarian grounds — but the economic damage was structural, not temporary.
Niger cut its national budget by 40% after the coup — from $5.3 billion to $1.98 billion — and the capital discovered what happens when your electricity comes through a single wire from the country you just offended.
Uranium tells the deeper story. Niger ranks among the world's top seven uranium producers, and the mineral constituted over 70% of exports before the coup. France's nuclear fleet depended on Nigerien uranium; Niger's budget depended on French development aid worth $120 million annually. The junta severed this relationship, halting uranium shipments to France and cutting export revenue by 60%. France, the EU, and Western donors suspended a combined $2 billion in annual development assistance.
The junta then joined Mali and Burkina Faso in forming the Alliance of Sahel States and withdrawing from ECOWAS entirely, expelling French forces and turning toward Russia for security partnerships. This is the same pattern playing out across the Sahel: military governments replacing one patron with another while the underlying economic fragility remains unchanged.
Niamey's population has doubled in roughly 15 years, straining infrastructure that was inadequate before the coup. The city functions as a remora — attached to whichever larger power is currently willing to host it, switching from France to Russia without developing the independent economic capacity that would make the attachment optional rather than existential.