Germany urged for EU sanctions on the rebel leaders as West African military commanders met in Ghana on Thursday to plan a potential armed intervention to overthrow a coup.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has decided to mobilize a “standby force to restore constitutional order” in Niger after becoming alarmed by a string of military coups in the area.
Following his overthrow on July 26, President Mohamed Bazoum is being demanded to be released by the coup leaders in Niger, with ECOWAS threatening to send in soldiers as a last resort if talks break down.
“Democracy is what we stand for and it’s what we encourage,” Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, told the meeting in Accra.
“The focus of our gathering is not simply to react to events, but to proactively chart a course that results in peace and promotes stability,” he said.
Since 1990, ECOWAS forces have intervened in additional crises, like as the wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Although troops from Ivory Coast, Benin, and Nigeria are anticipated, no information on a prospective Niger operation has surfaced.
The ECOWAS conference in Accra would “fine-tune” the specifics in the event that the group “were to resort to the ultimate means of force,” according to Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace, and security.
The generals who jailed Bazoum attributed the coup to the nation’s worsening security. They have threatened to accuse him of treason, but they also claim to be amenable to compromise.
The United States and Russia have pushed for a diplomatic resolution to the problem.
France, Germany, and the US have discontinued aid projects while ECOWAS has already imposed trade and financial restrictions.
Germany’s foreign ministry stated on social media on Thursday that it wanted the EU to impose sanctions on the coup leaders after Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke with her French and US counterparts.
- Sahel violence
Leading army officers met in Accra on Thursday and Friday in the wake of recent violence in Niger, where Islamists are believed to have killed at least 17 soldiers in an ambush, according to the defense ministry.
The military suffered its worst losses since the July 26 revolution, when the presidential guard overthrew Bazoum and imprisoned him and his family, by injuring twenty more troops, six of whom were critically wounded.
For more than ten years, jihadist insurgencies have plagued Africa’s Sahel area. They first appeared in northern Mali in 2012 before moving to nearby Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
Thousands of soldiers, police officers, and civilians have died as a result of the turmoil in the area, and millions of people have been forced to leave their homes.
Since 2020, Mali and Burkina Faso have seen military coups driven by rage at the bloodshed, with Niger being the most recent.
Analysts claim that any ECOWAS action against the coup leaders in Niger would be politically and militarily dangerous, and the bloc has stated that a diplomatic resolution is preferred.
In a statement released on Tuesday, ECOWAS “strongly condemned” the most recent jihadist assault and urged the military to “restore constitutional order in Niger” so that it could concentrate on security, which has been weakened since the attempted coup d’état.
Under the auspices of the African Union, discussions between members of ECOWAS and Niger have been taking place this week in Addis Abeba.
The United States said Wednesday that a new ambassador would soon head to Niger to help lead diplomacy aimed at reversing the coup.
- UN food warning
The election of Bazoum in 2021 marked a turning point in Niger’s history because it marked the nation’s first peaceful transfer of power since gaining independence from France in 1960.
Before being overthrown in the fifth military coup in the country, he had withstood two previous coup attempts.
The UN’s Human Development Index consistently places Niger as one of the world’s least developed nations.
The United Nations warned Wednesday that the crisis could significantly worsen food insecurity in the impoverished country, urging humanitarian exemptions to sanctions and border closures to avert catastrophe.
In the south-east, Niger is also dealing with a jihadist insurgency that is being led by militants who have crossed over from Nigeria, the origin of a Boko Haram-led assault that began in 2010.
