The military commandos of several countries in the west of Africa meet on thursday Ghana to coordinate a possible intervention to reverse the coup in Niger from the end of July.
Alarmed by various coups in the region in recent years, the Economic Community of West African States (Cedeao) decided to mobilize its “reserve force” to “restore constitutional order” in Niger.
The two-day meeting of the heads of Mayor state It comes after a new episode of violence in this country hit by the jihadist insurgency, with an ambush by Islamist militants that killed at least 17 soldiers.
An army detachment suffered on Tuesday “a terrorist ambush near the town of Koutougou”, in the southwest near Burkina Fasosaid the Ministry of Defense of Niger.
In addition, about twenty soldiers were injured, six of them seriously, in the worst jihadist attack since the July 26 coup.
The jihadist groups grip the African region of sahel for more than a decade. They appeared in the north of Mali in 2012 and expanded to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
The area of the “three borders” between these countries is a regular scene of actions by rebel groups affiliated with Islamic State and Al Qaeda.
This insurgency has killed thousands of soldiers, police officers and civilians in the region and has displaced millions of people.
This violence has fueled military coups in the three countries since 2020, the last one in Niger to depose the democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum.
The soldiers who retained the head of state, an important ally of West in the region, were justified by the “security situation”.
diplomatic efforts
The cedeao For now, he has prioritized a diplomatic exit before an intervention that, according to analysts, would be risky militarily and politically.
The regional bloc issued a statement “firmly condemning” the latest jihadist attack and urging the military to “restore constitutional order in Niger to be able to focus attention on security (…), weakened since the attempted coup».
This week, representatives of the organization and Niger held talks in Addis Ababathe capital of Ethiopia, under the auspices of the african union.
USA said on Wednesday that it would send a new ambassador to Niamey to try to lead diplomatic efforts to reverse the coup.
In another notable move, the Nigerien military-appointed prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeinevisited the neighbor on Tuesday Chada key country in the Sahel that is not part of the cedeao.
“We are in a transition process, we discuss the details and we reiterate our availability to remain open and talk to all parties, but we insist on the independence of our country,” he said. Zeine.
The election in 2021 of bazoum was a milestone in the history of Niger as it was the first peaceful transition of power since the independence of France in 1960.
Before being arrested and deposed by his presidential guard, bazoum he had survived two coup attempts.
The cedeao applied financial and trade sanctions against Niamey and France, USA and Germany they suspended their aid programs for this country, one of the poorest in the world.
United Nations He warned on Wednesday that the crisis could aggravate food insecurity in the country and urged the establishment of humanitarian exemptions to sanctions and border closures to avoid catastrophe.
