According to regional military sources on Tuesday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) chiefs of staff would meet in Ghana on Thursday and Friday to consider the possibility of a military intervention in Niger. An ECOWAS source corroborated the report.
Due to “technical reasons,” the meeting that was scheduled for Saturday has been postponed.
It will happen a week after the organization’s leaders decided to send out their “standby force” to restore Mohamed Bazoum, the president of Niger who was deposed on July 26 in a military coup.
ECOWAS asserts that it wishes to give priority to “diplomatic channels” despite the fact that a number of nations, including Côte d’Ivoire, have stated they are prepared to send their soldiers to Niger.
Military action is polarising; in northern Nigeria, political, religious, and civil society voices are being raised out of concern for serious repercussions for their nation and the Sahel area, which has been devastated by jihadist warfare.
The military government of Niger on Saturday welcomed a group of religious leaders from Nigeria after rejecting multiple ECOWAS mediation efforts.
Following the conference, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, the military-appointed prime minister, emphasised Niger’s “great interest” in “preserving” a “important and historic relationship” with Nigeria and ECOWAS.
The administration, meanwhile, is spitting fire and ice, declaring that it now intends to “prosecute” ousted leader Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason.”
