2010 — Niger's President Seized in a Palace Coup

On February 18, 2010, soldiers stormed Niger's presidential palace and seized President Mamadou Tandja during a cabinet meeting. Tandja had engineered a referendum to erase term limits, and had dissolved parliament and the courts to secure his hold on power.

Junta leader Major Salou Djibo pledged elections within a year, and delivered: a new constitution that October, and civilian rule restored by March 2011. The coup became West Africa's warning shot against constitutional power grabs, a case where soldiers who seized power in democracy's name unusually kept their promise to give it back. That kept promise is why this coup is remembered differently from so many others.