2023-08-08 07:30:12
US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland
The diplomat spoke of open and sometimes difficult talks.
(Photo: Reuters)
Washington, Niamey The top US diplomat Victoria Nuland has met with leaders of the military junta in Niger. Nuland, Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the US State Department, spoke of a “difficult” conversation afterwards. Almost two weeks after the military took power in the West African country, the putschists have named a prime minister.
Nuland met with new armed forces chief of staff Moussa Salao Barmou and three other members of the military junta in Niger on Monday, she said in a booth with reporters after the meeting. Nuland described the conversation as “very frank and quite difficult at times.” Nuland said her request to meet the ousted and arrested President Mohamed Bazoum was denied. But you could talk to him on the phone. She was also unable to see the self-proclaimed new ruler, General Abdourahamane Tiani.
“I hope they will keep the door open to diplomacy,” she said, referring to the putschists. “We made this proposal.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told French broadcaster RFI that diplomacy was the preferred way to resolve the situation. That is the approach of the West African community of states Ecowas. “That’s also our approach,” emphasized Blinken.
Nuland also pointed out to the military the consequences for relations with the United States if democratic order is not restored. She pointed out that aid to Niger had already been frozen.
On July 26, officers of the Presidential Guard in Niger ousted the democratically elected President Bazoum. The commander of the elite unit, Abdourahamane Tiani, subsequently proclaimed himself the new ruler. Shortly after Tiani came to power, the putschists suspended the constitution and dissolved all constitutional institutions. Under Bazoum, Niger was one of the West’s last strategic partners in the fight against the advance of Islamist terrorists in the Sahel.
Ecowas has little interest in military action
In a statement read on television late Monday night, a spokesman for the military junta named economist Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the new prime minister. Lamine Zeine used to be Economics and Finance Minister in the cabinet of ex-President Mamadou Tandja, who was ousted in 2010, and most recently worked as an economist for the African Development Bank in Chad, according to a Nigerien media report.
It is also unclear how the West African community of states Ecowas will proceed against the putschists. An ultimatum from Ecowas to reinstate Bazoum expired over the weekend. The alliance had threatened measures that could include violence. The heads of state and government of the Ecowas member states want to discuss the situation in Niger on Thursday in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
According to Africa experts, Ecowas, despite its threats, has no interest in military action against the putschists in Niger. “I would be surprised if we see any intervention at all. It is not in the interest of any West African country to wage a war against Niger,” Africa analyst Ben Hunter from the British security consultancy Verisk Maplecroft told the German Press Agency. The Ecowas planners had also seen military interventions in other parts of the world how difficult and expensive such undertakings could be. States had hoped that the mere threat would have an effect.
Sahel expert Ulf Laessing from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation also considers the conditions for a military strike to be unfavorable. “I don’t think there will be a war. Ecowas have too few skills and no task force,” said Laessing of the dpa. The element of surprise is now over. “Performing such an operation would be very risky, and the chance of it going wrong is very high – and the question is what comes after that.”
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