The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Niger has risen precipitously from 1.9 million in 2017 to 4.3 million in 2023, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

And the number of people suffering from severe food insecurity is expected to reach three million during the lean season (June to August), before the next harvest, it said.

OCHA "is telling us that humanitarian operations are currently on hold, given the situation," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Niger's armed forces chief on Thursday declared his support for troops who said they had overthrown the government, despite President Mohamed Bazoum's defiant stand.

The 63-year-old is one of a dwindling group of elected presidents and pro-Western leaders in the Sahel, where since 2020 a rampaging jihadist insurgency has triggered coups in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Niger is struggling with two jihadist campaigns -- one in the southwest, which swept in from Mali in 2015, and the other in the southeast, involving jihadists from northeastern Nigeria.

The nation of 22 million is two-thirds desert and frequently ranks at the bottom of the UN's Human Development Index, a benchmark of prosperity.