The coup leaders of Niger and its allies are preparing to counter possible military intervention from a regional bloc aimed at reinstating the democratic government of President Mohamed Bazoum, who was deposed in July.
Burkina Faso and Mali sent attack planes, known as Super Tucanos, to Niamey, Niger’s capital, and military officers met to work out a “response plan against the cowardly and unjust attacks planned by Ecowas,” Niger state-owned broadcaster TV Sahel reported late on Friday.
The developments come after the regional bloc, while still hoping to solve the crisis in Niger by diplomatic means, said it stands ready to apply force to overturn the July 26 coup if talks fail. The junta had previously said it was open to dialogue with the Economic Community of West African States.
An Ecowas delegation arrived in Niger on Saturday to meet with the country’s military leaders, a junta spokesman said by text message. It’s unclear whether Niamey will hold talks with the envoys from the bloc.
Kathleen Fitzgibbons has arrived in Niamey to lead the US mission in Niger, the US State Department said on Saturday. Fitzgibbons, a career diplomat with extensive experience in Africa, will “bolster efforts to help resolve the political crisis at this critical time.”
“We are not going to engage in endless dialogue,” Abdel-Fatau Musah, the economic group’s commissioner for political affairs, peace, and security, said after meetings in Accra, Ghana’s capital, on Friday. “If they want to take the peaceful option to very early restoration of constitutional order in the country, then we can stand down from the military option.”
Soldiers led by General Abdourahamane Tiani, chief of the presidential guard, seized power in July and took Bazoum hostage. He remains in detention along with his family and government members. Ecowas has taken a hard line against soldiers by closing borders, issuing harsh sanctions, and activating a standby force.
Top military officers representing the bloc’s member-states had completed a plan to enter Niger, Musah said during a press briefing after the two-day meeting in Accra.
Fifteen-nation Ecowas is taking a stand after the region’s sixth coup in three years. Mali and Burkina Faso, two neighbors of Niger that recently succumbed to military power grabs, have opposed intervention.
“In the event of an attack, our leaders have said that we’re ready. We’re prepared to support Niger,” Burkina Faso’s Defense Minister Kassoum Coulibaly told Russia’s state-owned news agency, RIA, after the military chiefs’ meeting in Accra.
Western Ally
Coup leaders had no intention of collaborating with the Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group or harming the deposed president, junta-installed Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine told the New York Times.
Niger has been a key Western ally and a relative bastion of stability in one of the world’s volatile regions. The US has a military drone base in the country, and France has about 1,500 troops stationed there, targeting insurgents affiliated with al-Qaeda and Islamic State in cooperation with Nigerien forces.
The landlocked nation, which is more than twice the size of France, ranks among the least developed countries. It has a population of over 25 million and one of the highest birth rates in the world.
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