NIAMEY, Niger
Niger’s military junta called Monday on Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe to act as a facilitator with the international community, including the West African bloc ECOWAS which has imposed sanctions since a coup.
Niger’s Defence Minister
General Salifou Mody met Gnassingbe in Togo’s capital Lome where he said the
junta also wanted Togo to be a guarantor of a deal for French troops to
withdraw from the Sahel country.
The Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) has imposed tight financial sanctions and closed border
trade with Niger in a bid to restore constitutional order.
Mody, who called the sanctions
“cynical”, said Togo had allowed space for the Niger junta to communicate when
other avenues were shut.
Though an ECOWAS member, Togo
has taken some bilateral initiatives to engage with Niger’s military
leadership.
“We have never closed our
country to friends. It is always important to remind our partners that Niger is
open, even if arrangements have been made so that we cannot address our
partners,” Mody told reporters after the meeting.
“We also asked the President
of the Republic of Togo to be a facilitator, to be able to facilitate this
dialogue with our various partners.”
France has already started
pulling out its 1,500 troops from Niger after the junta demanded they leave
following the July 28 ouster of President Mohamed Bazoum.
Mody said the withdrawal was
going ahead with some French “air assets” being prepared for departure.
“We demanded that Togo, our
brother country, for all the contribution that this country continues to give
us, be our guarantor in this agreement. The withdrawal is progressing and
everything is going normally,” he said.
Togo’s foreign minister Robert
Dussey said the country was ready to assist in dialogue.
“Togo always opposes any
takeover by force, Togo opposes any coup d’etat,” he said. “But in the
particular situation of your country, Togo understands and Togo wants to help
you.”
Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed
Tinubu, current chair of ECOWAS, said he was proceeding cautiously on Niger
because of concerns over the safety of ousted president Bazoum.
For now, the junta has
demanded up to a three-year transition back to civilian rule, while ECOWAS has
called for the immediate restoration of constitutional order. But Tinubu said
back channels were still open.
Niger is battling two jihadist
insurgencies — a spillover in its southeast from a long conflict in
neighbouring Nigeria, and an offensive in the west by militants crossing from
Mali and Burkina Faso.
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