THE NATIONAL
West African military chiefs were scheduled to meet in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Wednesday to discuss how to respond to a July 26 coup in neighbouring Niger that has raised fears of a regional conflict and prompted France, the former colonial power, to evacuate its citizens.
Ecowas, an alliance of West African countries that is currently chaired by Nigeria, on Sunday imposed trade and financial sanctions and gave the coup leaders a week to reinstate Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, or face potential use of force.
Meanwhile, media reports indicate that an Ecowas delegation is expected to head to Niamey to speak directly to the junta leaders. The delegation is reportedly led by former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar and includes a highly respected Nigerian religious leader, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’adu Abubakar.
Nigeria, which has the fourth largest army in Africa, has led the Ecowas response to the coup. Analysts have told The National that they believe that if mediation attempts fail, a Nigeria-led military intervention is likely.
There is little expectation that any western country would be directly involved. Italy’s foreign affairs minister Antonio Tajani told national media on Wednesday that: “We have to work so that democracy prevails in Niger … we need to rule out any western military initiative because it would be perceived as a new colonisation.”
Ecowas’s firm response to the coup has been welcomed by western leaders. “We stand ready to support Ecowas’s upcoming decisions, including the adoption of sanctions,” the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Saturday.
But the threat of a military intervention was met by a strong rebuttal from Mali and Burkina Faso, both led by military juntas, who said that it would be the equivalent to a declaration of war against them.
Niamey, Bamako and Ouagadougou seem to have been co-ordinating their response to Ecowas, with Gen Salifou Mody, one of the officers who seized power in Niger last week, visiting Mali on Wednesday.
Gen Mody, a former army chief of staff who was fired in April, arrived in Bamako at the head of a delegation, a senior Nigerien official and a Malian security official told AFP.
The coup leaders announced overnight they had reopened its land and air borders with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Libya and Chad.
In parallel, France continued evacuation flights on Wednesday. So far, two planes have repatriated more than 350 French citizens, as well as an unspecified number of people from Niger, Portugal, Belgium, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Germany, Canada, India, the US and Austria.
