West Africa’s regional union said on Wednesday that a military intervention in junta-ruled Niger would be “the last resort,” as Nigeria suspended power supply to put more pressure on the country’s coup authorities.
While ex-colonial power France dispatched a fifth jet to evacuate its citizens, coup leader General Abdourahamane Tiani argued there was no cause for them to leave the country.
Joining the departures, the United States ordered a partial evacuation of its embassy in Niamey.
A week after the coup that rattled the fragile nation, West African military chiefs were convening in Nigeria’s capital Abuja to plan a response, while a group was in Niger for talks.
HowAfrica had earlier reported that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) placed trade and financial sanctions on the coup leaders on Sunday, giving them a week to reinstate Niger’s legitimately elected president or risk the use of force.
“(The) military option is the very last option on the table, the last resort, but we have to prepare for the eventuality,” said Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security.
At the opening of a three-day conference of the grouping’s military commanders in Abuja, he noted that an ECOWAS team led by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar was in Niger for negotiations.
The dominant military and economic power in West Africa Nigeria, the current ECOWAS chair, has committed to take a tough stance against the coups that have flourished across the continent since 2020.
According to a source at Niger’s power provider, Nigelec, Nigeria has cut power to its neighbor as a result of the sanctions.
Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, depends on Nigeria for 70 percent of its power.
Junta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso have warned that any military intervention in their neighboring country would be a “declaration of war” against them.
General Salifou Mody, one of the Niger coup leaders, arrived in Mali’s capital Bamako on Wednesday with a delegation. He emphasized the need of cooperation between the two countries in an interview broadcast on Malian state television that evening.
Russia urged for “urgent national dialogue” in Niger on Wednesday, warning that military involvement “will not help ease tensions or calm the domestic situation.”
Later Wednesday, the World Bank said that it was halting aid to Niger “other than private sector partnerships.”
– Europeans Leave –
President Mohamed Bazoum, 63, was honored in 2021 after winning elections that resulted in Niger’s first-ever peaceful power transition.
He took over a country that had been plagued by four prior coups since its independence from France in 1960.
After escaping two attempted putches, Bazoum was detained at the presidency on July 26 by members of his own guard.
General Tiani, their commander, has declared himself leader, although his claim has been denounced globally.
France organised evacuation flights from Niamey following hostile demonstrations at the weekend.
But in a televised address Wednesday, Tiani said French nationals had nothing to fear, insisting they had never been subject “to the least threat”.
He rejected the international sanctions imposed in response to the coup, saying he “refused to give in to any threat”.
By Wednesday, French planes had evacuated 992 people, 560 of them French citizens, said Paris.
The same day, the US State Department “ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees and eligible family members from Embassy Niamey”, it said in a statement.
Italy’s foreign ministry said it had evacuated 68 civilians, including Italians and other nationals living in Niger, who arrived in Rome early Wednesday.
Eighteen Italian soldiers were also on the flight.
Germany has urged its citizens to leave, but the United States — which has 1,100 troops stationed in Niger — has opted to not evacuate Americans for now.
– Strategic Ally –
Niger, under Bazoum and his predecessor Mahamadou Issoufou, has played an important role in French and Western tactics to battle a jihadist insurgency that has raged across the Sahel since 2012.
Armed Islamists surged into Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015 after joining a regional insurgency in northern Mali, and now carry out periodic attacks on vulnerable Gulf of Guinea governments.
Hundreds of civilians, army, and police officers have been slain across the area, and an estimated 2.2 million people have fled their homes in Burkina Faso alone.
The result has been army takeovers in all three Sahel countries, as well as terrible harm to economies at the bottom of the global wealth table.
France’s anti-jihadist Burkina Faso mission had at its peak about 5,400 troops, supported by fighter jets, helicopters and drones.
But the mission was refocused on Niger last year, when France pulled out of Mali and Burkina Faso after falling out with their juntas.
Today, the reconfigured force has around 1,500 men, many of them deployed at an air base near Niamey.