2023-08-10 19:46:26
The Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has ordered this Thursday to “activate” the bloc’s military reserve force for a possible intervention in Niger aimed at “reestablishing constitutional order”, after the military coup d’état in end of july.
Niger’s military junta closes airspace after ECOWAS ultimatum to end coup expires
Further
“I order the activation of the ECOWAS reserve force with all its elements immediately,” said the president of the commission, Omar Alieu Touray, during an extraordinary meeting of ECOWAS heads of state and government in Abuja to find a solution to the crisis in Niger, according to the EFE Agency.
However, ECOWAS has not specified which countries would make up this joint military force, who would finance it and who would be willing to contribute men or weapons.
Security analysts, quoted by the Reuters agency, have indicated that ECOWAS could take weeks to prepare that force, which would give room for negotiations and a diplomatic exit.
The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, has affirmed that “no option has been removed from the table, including the use of force as a last option” during that meeting of the body in the country’s capital, Abuja.
“I hope that through our collective effort we can achieve a peaceful solution, as a road map to restore stability and democracy in Niger,” Tinubu wished, adding that “all is not lost yet.”
“We remain firm in our commitment to support Niger on the path towards peaceful democratic stability,” said the Nigerian president, according to Reuters.
In recent days, your Government and those of Benin, the Ivory Coast and Senegal have clearly confirmed the availability of their armies to intervene in Nigerien territory. Meanwhile, Mali and Burkina Faso, governed by military juntas, oppose the use of force and allege that any intervention in Niger would amount to a declaration of war against them as well. Likewise, Guinea-Conakry, Algeria and Chad have been opposed.
For its part, France, a former colonial power and which has a strong military presence in Niger with 1,500 soldiers deployed within the framework of agreements signed in the fight against terrorism, stated this Sunday that it “firmly and determinedly supports” the efforts. of ECOWAS “to derail” the military coup in Niger. Paris has also suspended all of its economic aid to Burkina Faso on Monday.
Measures against the coup plotters
So far, ECOWAS has taken other measures in the face of the coup in Niger, including sanctions and a travel ban on the generals who overthrew the elected president, Mohamed Bazoum.
The sanctions include the freezing of the financial and monetary assets of the Nigerian State in the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and in the commercial banks of the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), as well as such as the suspension of all commercial and financial transactions, including those relating to petroleum products and electricity.
In fact, Nigeria has cut off electricity intermittently for a week in Niger, a measure that had “serious” repercussions on various economic activities in the country, according to EFE.
ECOWAS had held an extraordinary summit on July 30, in which it gave a seven-day ultimatum for the coup plotters to withdraw and threatened the Niger junta with military intervention if constitutional order is not restored in that country. .
However, the military junta has ignored the threats and, in addition to appointing a new prime minister, reinforcing its military device and closing the airspace, has warned that the use of force will have an “instantaneous” response and “energetic”.
This Thursday, the UN General Secretariat has referred to the alleged threats by the coup leaders to kill President Bazoum if a military intervention against the country were to take place and has warned against “any threat to harm the elected president of Niger”.
The president has been held by the Presidential Guard since July 26, when he was deposed by the coup generals, and his party has denounced that he and his entire family lack electricity, water, food, and medicine.
Indirectly, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has condemned the situation of Bazoum in a statement issued last night, in which he denounced “the deplorable living conditions” in which the president and his relatives find themselves.
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