NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Niger’s junta leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, was on Wednesday sworn in as the country’s president for a transition period of five years under a new charter that replaces the West African nation’s constitution. The move effectively rebuffed attempts by the regional bloc to quicken the return to democracy after a 2023 coup.

The five-year “flexible” transition period begins on Wednesday, according to Mahamane Roufai, the secretary general of the government. He was speaking at a ceremony in the capital Niamey where the new transition charter recommended by a recent national conference was approved.

Tchiani, an army veteran, was also elevated to the country’s highest military rank of army general, cementing his grip on power since June 2023 when he led soldiers that deposed the country’s elected government.

The new president would have been in power for about seven years by the end of the transition period in 2030, following similar patterns of prolonged stints in power in Africa's junta-led countries, including Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.

Niger's junta had initially proposed a three-year transition period right after the coup, but that was rejected by West Africa's regional bloc known as ECOWAS, which called it a provocation and threatened to intervene with the use of force.

Since then Niger has left the bloc alongside Mali and Burkina Faso, in protest of harsh sanctions which the bloc announced to force a return to democracy in Niger.

Critics say Niger's junta has clamped down on civil rights and struggled to end the jihadi violence that the military said inspired them to take power.