General Abdourahmane Tchiani offered no details about the plan, saying only on state television that the principles for the transition would be decided within 30 days in a dialogue organized by the junta.
“I am convinced that… we will work together to find a way out of the crisis, in the interest of all,” Tchiani said after his first meeting with a regional delegation seeking to resolve the West African nation’s crisis.
A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), led by former Nigerian head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, also met separately with ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. The representatives joined the negotiations initiated the day before by the United Nations special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simao, who arrived on Friday to try to facilitate the resolution of the crisis.
ECOWAS ordered on August 10 the deployment of a “reserve force” to restore constitutional status in Niger. On Friday, ECOWAS commissioner for peace and security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, said that 11 of its 15 member countries have pledged to contribute troops to the operation, indicating that “we are ready to go” when the order is given.
The soldiers who ousted the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, in July have entrenched themselves in power, rebuffed most efforts at dialogue and are keeping Bazoum, his wife and son under house arrest in the capital.
The 11 nations do not include Niger itself or three other bloc nations that have military governments that came to power after coups: Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso. The last two have warned that they will consider any military intervention in Niger an act of war. Nigerian state television reported on Friday that the two countries sent warplanes as a show of solidarity with the country.
Friday’s announcement was the latest in a series of hitherto hollow threats by ECOWAS to forcibly restore democratic rule in Niger, according to analysts.
Immediately after the coup, the bloc gave the junta seven days to release and reinstate Bazoum, a date that passed without incident.
“The coup plotters this time will not be holding their breath at the renewed threat of military intervention,” said Ulf Laessing, director of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation research institute.
Meanwhile, the mutinous soldiers are consolidating their regime and appointing loyal commanders to key units, while ECOWAS lacks both military experience in hostile territory and local support for an intervention, he said.
“Niger is a very fragile country that in the event of an intervention can easily become a failed state like Sudan,” Laessing warned.
On the other hand, the new US ambassador to Niger, Kathleen FitzGibbon, has arrived in the capital, announced Matthew Miller, spokesman for the State Department. Washington had not had an ambassador in the country for almost two years.
FitzGibbon will advocate for a diplomatic solution to maintain constitutional order and the immediate release of Bazoum, his family and all those unlawfully detained, Miller said. His arrival does not indicate a change in the US position, he said.
On the streets of the capital, many residents of the capital said on Saturday that they were preparing to fight against an intervention by the bloc.
Thousands of Niamey residents lined up at the city’s main stadium to register as volunteers, fighters and to help in other ways should the junta need support. Some parents took their children to register and others said they had been waiting since 3am as groups of youngsters chanted in favor of the junta and against ECOWAS and the country’s former colonial ruler, France.
″I’m here for the draft to become a good soldier. That’s what we’re all here for,” said Ismail Hassan, a resident waiting in line. “God willing, we’ll all go.”
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Associated Press journalists Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Edith Lederer at the United Nations; and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
