2023-09-01 12:23:45
By Solenn Paulic
Posted yesterday at 8:35 PM, Updated just now
ECOWAS President Omar Alieu Touray (C) delivering a speech during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Toledo on August 31, 2023. PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP
The Twenty-Seven agree to impose sanctions on the perpetrators of the putsch in Niger, but the time has not yet come to support a possible military intervention.
Bruxelles
The European Union is preparing sanctions against the junta responsible for the July 26 coup in Niger. Meeting informally in Toledo, Spain, to also take stock of aid to Ukraine, the Foreign Ministers of the 27 countries gave the green light to a new framework of targeted individual sanctions, aimed at the perpetrators of the putsch of July 26 or all those preventing the return to constitutional order and the restoration of President Bazoum.
Inspired by the sanctions already applied by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), whose President Omar Alieu Touray had also been invited to Toledo, they should include the suspension of financial transactions, the freezing of assets or EU travel bans. It will take several more weeks for them to materialize and enter into force, the idea at this stage being to equip ourselves with the architecture of sanctions to send a “premier messageto the putschists, said a diplomat.
The initiative for these sanctions was taken in early August at the instigation of Paris and Berlin. But the EU will not impose any punishment on the people”already punishedby the coup, High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell explained on Thursday, as Nigeriens are beginning to suffer from the economic blockade on certain goods imposed by ECOWAS. For the High Representative, this meeting was another opportunity to recall the “full support for France“, who defends his ambassador on the spot and “full support for ECOWAS and all proposals addressed to the EUbetween sanctions and diplomatic solutions.
Read alsoArthur Banga: “In Niger, ECOWAS has the capacity to act militarily”
Caution on supporting a military intervention
But while Paris supports any military action that ECOWAS would consider to restore Mohamed Bazoum, European ministers and the High Representative were a little more cautious on Thursday. While Josep Borrell has not ruled out that the EU could support such an intervention, in financial form for example, the Twenty-Seven support “the diplomatic way” first of all. “No one wants military intervention“, he said. This informal meeting, limited in announcements and progress, in any case allowed the ministers to start discussing how the EU can better anticipate and respond to these coups d’etat which have multiplied in the Sahel.
On Wednesday, the 27 had indeed been taken aback by the events in Gabon, not yet being able to position themselves. The events however worry Josep Borrell a little less, which he attributes above all to unfair elections when the situation is much more serious in Niger. “It is clear that things did not go well. It is clear that one cannot say that it was a success because we see the proliferation of military coups and the presence of Wagner in the Central African Republic, in Mali, in Burkina Faso“, had thus explained the Spaniard at the start of the meeting. “We will have to review our policy in depth».
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