A West African delegation arrived Saturday August 19 in Niamey to try to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Niger. This delegation, which landed at midday in the capital, is led by former Nigerian President Abdulsalami Abubakar, according to the communication unit of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP), which took power in Niger. .
Mr. Abubakar had already visited Niamey on behalf of ECOWAS in early August, but he had met neither Niger’s new strongman, General Abdourahamane Tiani, nor the ousted president. According to a source close to ECOWAS, this delegation wishes to convey “a message of firmness” to the military in Niamey and meet President Mohamed Bazoum, still being held prisoner.
On Friday, the regional organization’s commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, announced that the mission’s objective was to “continue to follow the peaceful path to restore constitutional order”. The diplomatic channel is therefore still favored by ECOWAS, which however declared on Friday evening that it was ready to use force to restore constitutional order in Niger.
“Ready to intervene” militarily
“We are ready to intervene as soon as the order is given. The day of the intervention has also been set,” Musah said on Friday after a two-day meeting of West African chiefs of staff in Accra. According to him, the meeting agreed “the strategic objectives, the necessary equipment and the commitment of the member states” for this possible intervention.
This military option has been brandished by ECOWAS for several weeks. On August 10, West African leaders had ordered the deployment of a “standby force”. Neither the terms nor a possible timetable for the intervention have however been made public.
Another diplomatic initiative took place on Friday: Nigerien military-appointed Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine met with a United Nations (UN) delegation led by Leonardo Santos Simão, the Special Representative of the Secretary General for West Africa and the Sahel. “We must first listen to the authorities, their point of view to study together a path so that the country returns as quickly as possible to normality and constitutional legality. We are convinced that this is always possible through dialogue,” Mr. Simão said after the meeting.
Nothing ‘will happen’ to Mohamed Bazoum, junta says
In Niamey, the new regime remains for the moment inflexible and had asserted that an armed intervention would be an “illegal and senseless aggression”. On Saturday morning, thousands of volunteers gathered near the General-Seyni-Kountché stadium, in the city center of the capital, responding to a call from several organizations to be registered on lists as potentially civilian auxiliaries. mobilized in support of the armed forces, noted journalists from Agence France-Presse.
More than three weeks after the coup, the conditions of detention of the deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, worry the international community and are “deteriorating” according to the president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu. In an interview with the New York Times, the new Prime Minister of Niger assured Friday evening that “nothing will happen” to Mr. Bazoum.
In the hours following the coup, France was asked to support a possible intervention by the Nigerien army to free Mr. Bazoum, according to information from Le Monde. “But the loyalists switched sides and joined the putschists. The conditions were therefore not met to satisfy this request for support, “said this source, who did not specify the nature of the aid that Paris could potentially have provided.
About 1,500 French soldiers are stationed in Niger, under defense agreements between the two countries, above all for the fight against the jihadists who have regularly bereaved the country with their bloody attacks for several years. On Tuesday, at least 17 Niger soldiers were killed in an attack near Burkina Faso, the deadliest since the coup.
