The Chiefs of Staff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will meet on Thursday August 17 and Friday August 18 in Ghana to discuss a possible military intervention in Niger, Agence France-Presse has learned. (AFP) on Tuesday from regional military and political sources.
This meeting which was initially to be held on Saturday had been postponed. It will finally take place a week after ECOWAS leaders decided to deploy the organization’s “standby force” to restore Mohamed Bazoum, the president of Niger toppled in a military coup on 26 July.
While several countries have said they are ready to send their army to Niger, such as Côte d’Ivoire, ECOWAS says it wants to favor “the diplomatic route”. The idea of ??a military intervention divides: political, religious and civil society voices are rising in northern Nigeria, who fear serious consequences in their country and in the Sahel region scarred by jihadist violence.
Threats of prosecution for “high treason”
After refusing several mediations from ECOWAS, the Nigerian military regime welcomed a delegation of Nigerian religious leaders on Saturday. Following the meeting, military-appointed Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine highlighted Niger’s “great interest” in “preserving” an “important and historic relationship” with Nigeria and ECOWAS.
But the regime is blowing hot and cold, announcing now that it wants to “prosecute” ousted President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason”. An approach which, for ECOWAS, “constitutes a new form of provocation and contradicts the will attributed to the military authorities of the Republic of Niger to restore constitutional order by peaceful means”.
“We are extremely appalled by the reports that we are adding a notch to the unjust detention of President Bazoum”, had reacted for its part the State Department in Washington, estimating that this “[would] certainly not contribute to a peaceful resolution of this crisis”.
The United States was with France a major partner of Niger before the coup. The two countries are deploying some 2,600 soldiers there in the fight against the jihadist groups which have been undermining this country for years and, beyond, a large part of the Sahel.
