Seyni Kountché (1 July 1931 – 10 November 1987) was a Nigerien military officer who led a 1974 coup d'état that deposed the government of Niger's first president, Hamani Diori.

Born in 1931 in the town of Damana Fandou, a child of Djerma aristocracy who traced their origins to the Djermakoy Tondikandie, Kountché began his military career in 1949, serving in the French colonial army.

Although political parties were outlawed, opposition activists who were exiled during Diori's regime were allowed to return to Niger.

In 1981 Kountché began to increase civilian representation in the CMS, and in 1982 preparations were undertaken for a constitutional form of government.

Economic adjustment efforts during this period were impeded by the recurrence of drought in 1984 and 1985 along with the closure of the land border with Nigeria from 1984 to 1986.

Relations with the United States (by now the country's principal source of food aid) assumed considerable importance.

Meanwhile, a period of renewed tension between Niger and Libya had fueled Libyan accusations of the persecution of the light-skinned, nomadic Tuareg population by the Kountché regime.

Kountché rejected Libyan overtures to join the Organization of Saharan States because of Gaddafi's pronouncement in a speech at Benghazi in October 1980 that "Moors and Arab-Berber people were persecuted and oppressed in Mali and Niger".