Niamey. The delegation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) failed in its mediation to restore power to the democratically elected president in Niger, where the military coup leaders announced the breakdown of cooperation agreements with France.
“The ECOWAS emissaries left” on Thursday night without having met with the leader of the military that took power last week, General Abdourahamane Tiani, nor with the ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, one of its members reported this Friday. .
This delegation was headed by former Nigerian head of state Abdulsalami Abubakar and had the objective of “presenting the demands of the ECOWAS leaders”, according to a statement from the Nigerian presidency.
This regional organization adopted sanctions against Niger last weekend and gave until Sunday to restore power to President Bazoum, who was overthrown on July 26, under threat of using “force.”
The organization specified, however, that a military intervention is “the last option on the table.” The military chiefs of the ECOWAS countries are meeting until this Friday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
The coup leaders warned on television Thursday that they would respond immediately to any “aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger” by ECOWAS.
In their statement they excluded the “friendly countries” suspended from ECOWAS from their threats, referring to Burkina Faso and Mali, which are also governed by military rebels.
These two countries warned in a joint statement that “any military intervention against Niger would be considered a declaration of war.”
The coup leaders denounced several defense agreements with Paris, including those linked to the deployment of French troops in Niger and the “statute” of the military participating in the anti-jihadist fight.
Bazoum — who is being held with his family — said on Thursday that if the coup is successful, it will have “devastating consequences for the region and the entire world.”
In his first public statement since he was overthrown, in a forum published by the daily The Washington PostBazoum urged the US government and the international community to “help restore constitutional order.”
In various parts of Niger, thousands of people marched in support of the coup leaders on Thursday to coincide with the commemoration of the country’s independence from France in 1960.
Some protesters chanted anti-France slogans and waved Russian flags.
This Friday the curfew imposed by the coup leaders that had been in force in the country since July 26 was lifted, according to a decree signed by General Tiani.
In his text, Bazoum warned that “the entire central Sahel region” could fall under Russian influence through the Wagner paramilitary group, whose “brutal terrorism” was demonstrated in Ukraine.
France has deployed 1,500 soldiers in this country for the anti-jihadist fight and this week evacuated 1,79 people from the country, more than half of them French.
The Spanish Ministry of Defense informed AFP that a military plane landed this Friday in the capital of Niger, Niamey, to repatriate Spanish civilians who want to leave the country.
The coup military took Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the France 24 television network off the air on Monday, a measure condemned this week by France and which the European Union described this Friday as “unacceptable.”
