2023-08-09 22:03:52
Tension rises in Niger. The coup military junta does not give in to various international pressures, clings to power and lowers hopes for dialogue despite the explicit threat of regional military intervention.
Hours before a tripartite mission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union and the UN traveled to Niger on Tuesday to try to find a negotiated solution to the situation triggered after the coup d’état on July 26 , the military junta refused their entry into the country. The justification for the meeting was a matter of security, due to public anger after the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS.
“The current context of public anger and revolt after the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS do not allow the welcome of this delegation in the necessary conditions of serenity and security,” the military junta said in a letter. “[La agenda] it includes meetings with some personalities that cannot be held for obvious security reasons, given the threat of aggression against Niger,” it indicated.
Just one day earlier, on Monday, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland had traveled to Niger to “try to resolve these issues diplomatically and start negotiations.” In recent days, Washington has also unsuccessfully called for the reinstatement of the president deposed in the coup, Mohamed Bazoum, and has suspended aid to the country, which has the third lowest Human Development Index on the planet. Once again, the military junta resisted the pressures.
Nuland met with one of the coup leaders and the junta’s chief of staff, General Moussa Salaou Barmou. “The talks were extremely frank and at times very difficult,” he said in diplomatic language that shows the failure of his objectives.
“We are pressing for a negotiated solution, but it is not easy to convince them. They are quite firm in their vision of how they want to proceed and that does not conform to the Constitution,” added Nuland in Niamey, minutes before taking the plane back and after repeating on multiple occasions that the talks had been “very difficult.” The US envoy also regretted that she was not allowed to visit the deposed president or the president of the military junta, Abdourrahmane Tiani.
The situation worsened because General Barmou was considered in Washington as an ally. The soldier received training at the Fort Benning base, in the state of Georgia, and at the National Defense University in Washington.
An American general who led US special operations forces in Africa told the New York Times: “I am disappointed and surprised. Barmou was one of the most competent and capable African military leaders I have ever worked with.”
Barmou himself met in June at the Agadez air base in Nigeria with Jonathan Braga, the head of the US Army’s Special Operations Command, to discuss anti-terrorism policy. He has now been chosen by the coup leaders as the main diplomatic channel with the US, but his old ties and the threat of a break with Washington do not seem to alter his determination. “If that’s the price to pay for our sovereignty, so be it,” the general told The Wall Street Journal.
Since 2012, Washington has spent half a billion dollars in military assistance to Niger in one of the most ambitious programs on the continent and the country is one of the main bases in the fight against terrorism in West Africa. However, the figures cast doubt on the success of his strategy.
A February report from the African Center for Strategic Studies, a US Defense Department research institute, says Burkina Faso, Mali and western Niger experienced the largest escalation of violent incidents linked to Islamist militants across the continent in 2022, with a increases of 36%. The study also calculates that these types of incidents have skyrocketed by 3,500% since 2016.
According to the US outlet The Intercept, soldiers who have received training and training from the US have participated in at least eleven coups in West Africa since 2008, including in Mali and Burkina Faso, which along with Guinea have emerged as the main support of the military junta in Niger.
On Monday, while Nuland tried unsuccessfully to convince Barmou, Mali and Burkina Faso sent a delegation to the country to show “the solidarity of the two countries to the brotherly people of Niger.” Both neighbors have openly declared that any foreign armed intervention will be considered a declaration of war against them.
Niger’s military junta has already defied an ultimatum issued by ECOWAS, in which neighboring states threatened military intervention if the coup leaders did not reinstate the former president. The ultimatum, supported by the US and the European Union, expired on Sunday and, far from backing down, hours before the country’s de facto authorities closed the airspace, threatening to shoot down any aircraft that entered the country. This Thursday, ECOWAS meets again to decide the next steps in the face of Niger’s challenge.
“There has been a firm ultimatum and member states will not back down from their duty to uphold the protocols,” said Chief Ajuri Ngelale, spokesman for the Nigerian president, who in turn serves as ECOWAS president. “We are not taking the simplistic strategy that some international media are taking according to which you either intervene [militarmente] Or are you not serious? We have many elements to press and achieve the objective we are seeking, and that is not limited only to military intervention, although military intervention has not been taken off the table nor will it be taken off the table”, he has maintained.
For the time being, ECOWAS and the West African Economic and Monetary Union have suspended all commercial transactions with Niger, frozen state assets in the regional central bank, frozen state assets in commercial banks and suspended all financial assistance with regional development banks. Among these measures is the cut off of electricity supply from Nigeria, which represents about 70% of electricity.
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