Gen Tchiani has triggered a major crisis by overthrowing the president he was meant to guard.
Once involved in peacekeeping efforts in war-hit countries, General Abdourahmane Tchiani has now triggered a major crisis in West Africa by staging a coup in Niger.
Gen Tchiani has, so far, rejected all suggestions of compromise. He has kept most international envoys at bay, but gave an audience to Nigeria's ex-central bank governor and former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, on Wednesday. Faced with these uncertainties, and encouraged by the success of fellow coup leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea in weathering regional pressure, it seems that Gen Tchiani has for the moment decided to hunker down and play the long game.
However, Gen Tchiani is not above taking big risks of a different kind. The decision to detain Mr Bazoum and stage the coup was itself a pretty high-stakes gamble. Had it failed, it is the general himself who would now be in a jail cell. Gen Tchiani has also been posted to a range of command roles in Niger itself, although not actually in the campaign against the jihadist groups now presenting such a grave threat to his own country and neighbouring Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin in the central Sahel.
Closely trusted but rarely heard, he seems to have been an intensely private figure, in some ways not even that well-known to the presidents who entrusted themselves to his protection.
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