West Africa’s regional bloc on Friday said its military chiefs have agreed a plan for a possible intervention in Niger, after the junta failed to restore civilian rule there following last week’s coup.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Sunday gave the junta that toppled elected president Mohamed Bazoum in a July 26 coup one week to reinstate him or face the potential use of force.
Military chiefs from the grouping were meeting in Nigeria’s capital Abuja to discuss ways to respond to the crisis, the latest of several coups to hit Africa’s Sahel region since 2020.
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“All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out,” ECOWAS commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah said after the talks finished.
These included “the resources needed, and including the how and when we are going to deploy the force”, he added.
“We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them (the junta) that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done,” Musah said.
An ECOWAS delegation arrived in Niger’s capital Niamey on Thursday but did not stay overnight as scheduled. It did not meet with Bazoum or coup leader Abdourahamane Tiani, a delegation member said on Friday.
In a deepening of the crisis, the junta announced earlier on Friday it was scrapping military pacts between Niger and France, citing the former colonial ruler’s “careless attitude and its reaction to the situation”.
Meanwhile, Washington is suspending some aid programmes to the Niger government, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said without giving details.
However, “life-saving humanitarian and food assistance will continue” and the United States will still carry out diplomatic and security operations to protect its personnel in the country, he said.
Niger has played a key part in Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.
France rejected the coup leaders’ severing of military ties, insisting only the “legitimate” government could decide.
By Ajibola Adedoye