Following last week’s coup in Niger and the capture of President Mohamed Bazoum, West African leaders issued a stern ultimatum to the military junta, threatening military action if the President is not reinstated within seven days.
In response, the junta warned that it would resist any aggressive moves against Niger by regional or Western powers. Meanwhile, in Niamey, the capital city, hundreds of coup supporters staged protests outside the French embassy.
To address the escalating situation, leaders from Ecowas, the West African bloc, convened crisis talks in Nigeria on Sunday, addressing the recent coup in Niger, which adds to the series of army takeovers witnessed in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso.
A statement read out after the summit said that Ecowas had “zero tolerance” for coups.
The regional bloc would “take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order” if its demands were not met within a week.
“Such measures may include the use of force,” and military chiefs are to meet “immediately” to plan for an intervention, the statement added.
This marks the first instance where Ecowas has threatened military action to reverse recent coups in the region. The last time military intervention was sanctioned by Ecowas was in 2017, when Senegalese troops were deployed to The Gambia, compelling Yahya Jammeh, the long-serving ruler, to step down after he refused to accept election defeat.
Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno has traveled to Niamey on behalf of Ecowas to urge the junta to relinquish power, as confirmed by Chad’s government. He is the first foreign leader to visit Niger since the coup and has already met with junta deputy leader Gen Salifou Mody. It remains unclear whether he will hold talks with Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, the head of the presidential guards unit, who has declared himself as Niger’s new ruler.
Additionally, West African leaders declared the immediate implementation of several measures, including a no-fly zone over Niger for all commercial flights, the closure of all land borders with the country, and the imposition of financial sanctions targeting the junta.
Before the meeting, Gen Tchiani cautioned Ecowas and unspecified Western nations against intervening in the situation.
“We once again reiterate to Ecowas or any other adventurer our firm determination to defend our fatherland,” the statement, which was read out on TV, said.
The coup has raised worries that Niger, a former French colony, might shift its alliances towards Russia. The deposed president had collaborated closely with regional and Western nations to combat militant Islamists in the country.
Similarly, Burkina Faso and Mali also aligned themselves more closely with Russia following their respective coups.
In Niamey, some of the protesters outside the French embassy chanted “Long live Russia”, “Long live Putin” and “Down with France”, AFP news agency reports.
They also set fire to the walls of the embassy compound.
France would not tolerate any attack on its interests in Niger, and would respond in an “immediate and intractable manner”, President Emmanuel Macron’s office said in a statement.
Western nations have condemned Niger’s coup, while Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, has reportedly welcomed it and described it as a triumph.
“What happened in Niger is nothing other than the struggle of the people of Niger with their colonisers,” he was quoted as saying on a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel, although his comments have not been independently verified.
The junta in Mali has enlisted Wagner’s assistance to combat militant Islamists. Last year, France, the former colonial power, announced the withdrawal of its troops due to growing hostility from the junta and subsequently relocated its regional military headquarters to Niger.
In June, Mali’s junta demanded the departure of the UN’s 12,000 peacekeepers after a decade of countering Islamist militants. The UN agreed, planning to complete the withdrawal by year-end.
Recently, France, the European Union, and the US suspended all development aid and budgetary support to Niger in response to the situation.
