Can Niger continue to beat the odds with its democratic progress?

Analysis: The world's poorest country has successfully organised a smooth transition of power. Could other Sahel countries follow?

Niger, the world's poorest country, has peacefully and successfully organised its first democratic transition of power since regaining its independence in 1960 - a milestone that should have been splashed across the front page of every newspaper.

This underreported counter-trend in a continent that has a host of rich and rabidly authoritarian rulers - and during a global crisis that UN chief Antonio Guterres said had brought about a pandemic of human rights abuses" - is a historic democratic moment in Niger.