ABUJA, Nigeria
Military chiefs from the West African bloc ECOWAS will meet in Ghana on Thursday and Friday to discuss possible intervention in Niger, military and political sources in the region said Tuesday.
The meeting — originally
scheduled for Saturday but then postponed — came after ECOWAS leaders last week
approved deployment of a "standby force to restore constitutional
order" in Niger, whose president was ousted on July 26.
Their summit, held in the
Nigerian capital of Abuja last Thursday, also reaffirmed the bloc's preference
for a diplomatic outcome.
President Mohamed Bazoum's
election in 2021 was a landmark in Niger's history, ushering in the country's
first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.
His ousting unleashed a shock
wave around West Africa, where Mali and Burkina Faso — likewise battered by a
jihadist insurgency — have also suffered military takeovers.
The Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) gave Niger's military rulers a one-week ultimatum on
July 30 to restore Bazoum or face the potential use of force, but the deadline
expired without action.
Analysts say military
intervention would be operationally risky and politically hazardous, given
divisions within ECOWAS ranks and domestic criticism.
Niger's military regime has
sent mixed signals since the crisis erupted.
At the weekend, the coup
leaders said they were open to a diplomatic push after their chief, General
Abdourahamane Tchiani, met with Nigerian religious mediators.
Those talks came after the
ECOWAS military meeting in Ghana was postponed for "technical
reasons."
But on Sunday night, Niger's
rulers declared they had gathered sufficient evidence to prosecute Bazoum for
"high treason and undermining internal and external security."
The legal threat was angrily
condemned by ECOWAS, which called it a contradiction of the regime's
"reported willingness" to explore peaceful means. Washington said it
was "incredibly dismayed."
The row overshadowed talks
under African Union (AU) auspices that began on Monday in Addis Ababa, bringing
together representatives from the regime and ECOWAS.
A landlocked nation in the
heart of the arid Sahel, Niger is one of the world's poorest and most turbulent
countries.
Bazoum, 63, survived two
attempted coups before being ousted, in the fifth putsch in the country's
history.
His ousting deals a huge blow
to French and U.S. strategy in the Sahel.
France refocused its
anti-jihadist operations on Niger after withdrawing from Mali and Burkina Faso
last year following a bust-up with their juntas.
International concern is
mounting for the state of Bazoum, his wife and son, who have been detained at
the president's official residence since the coup.
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