2023-08-10 23:20:25
Time.news – The West African bloc ECOWAS has approved military intervention in Niger “as soon as possible”, to remove military rulers after last month’s coup, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said on Thursday. “The Chiefs of Staff will have other conferences to finalize things, but they have the agreement of the Conference of Heads of State to start the operation as soon as possible,” Ouattara said after returning from an emergency ECOWAS summit.
Alassane Ouattara stated that Ivory Coast will provide “a contingent” of 850-1,100 men, together with Nigeria and Benin in particular, and that “other countries” will join them. “The putschists can decide to leave tomorrow morning and there will be no military intervention, it depends on them”, he insisted, adding: “We are determined to reinstate President Bazoum in his place”. At the end of the Abuja summit, however, the president of the Ecowas Commission, Omar Touray, reaffirmed “the continued commitment to restore the constitutional order, through peaceful means”.
The threat of the use of force was first raised on July 30, at a previous ECOWAS summit, when a seven-day ultimatum was given to the military in Niamey to reinstate President Bazoum, overthrown on 26 July, or face an armed intervention. But on Sunday’s deadline, nothing happened. Since then, Niger’s new rulers have appeared closed to ECOWAS’s attempts at negotiations.
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