A West African delegation, dispatched to Niger, left the country overnight from Thursday to Friday after presenting proposals for a “way out of the crisis” to members of the junta. The latter had announced the rupture of military cooperation with France. On Thursday evening, the putschists denounced the security and defense cooperation agreements with France, the former colonial power which deployed a military contingent of 1,500 soldiers to Niger to fight terrorism in this region facing jihadist violence.
Paris responded on Friday that only “legitimate Nigerien authorities” had the power to modify these agreements. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that these authorities were the only ones recognized by France and the international community as a whole. During the night of Thursday to Friday, a delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), led by former Nigerian President Abdulsalami Abubakar, left Niamey after a few hours.
Although the emissaries did not meet the head of the junta, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, nor the overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum, they spoke at the airport with putschist soldiers and discussed “the latest proposals for ending the crisis of ECOWAS,” according to the Nigerien government daily Le Sahel. The German government called on Friday to continue “mediation efforts” to find a political solution and avoid any armed intervention. On July 30, ECOWAS, which imposed heavy sanctions on Niamey, gave the putschists until Sunday to restore President Mohamed Bazoum, who was overthrown on July 26, to office, or risk using “force”.
A meeting of ECOWAS chiefs of staff is due to end on Friday afternoon in Abuja, when several West African armies, including that of Senegal, say they are ready to send soldiers if a military intervention is decided. “The intervention of extra-regional forces is unlikely to improve the situation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow, while calling for a “swift return to constitutional order” in Niger.
The putschists, who promised an “immediate response” to “any aggression” from an ECOWAS country, also announced the lifting of the curfew in place since July 26. Friday morning, a hundred demonstrators from several West African countries gathered in Niamey to protest against any military intervention in Niger.
Mr. Bazoum, 63, has been held with his family since the day of the coup in his presidential residence. In addition to the denunciation of the military agreements, the Nigerien ambassador in Paris was sacked by the putschists, as were the representatives of Niger in the United States, Togo and Nigeria. Niger’s ambassador to France, Aïchatou Boulama Kané, told AFP on Friday that she was “always” the ambassador “of legitimate President Mohamed Bazoum”, adding that she rejected “as null and void” the putschists’ decision .
On Thursday, the programs of Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the news television channel France 24 were interrupted in Niger, “a decision taken outside any conventional and legal framework”, according to the parent company of the two media, France. World Media.
On Friday morning, a Spanish Air Force military plane landed in Niamey, to evacuate Spanish nationals – estimated at around 70 – wishing to leave Niger, according to Madrid. The United States, one of Niger’s main partners with France, has chartered a plane to get its non-essential personnel out of the country and President Joe Biden has called for “the immediate release of President Bazoum”. Washington and Paris are deploying 1,100 and 1,500 soldiers respectively to Niger to help the country in its fight against jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
