By Juan Carlos de Santos with EFE & AP
Published 06/08/2023 – 07:48•Last update 08:06
This Sunday marks the deadline given by the ECOWAS regional bloc to the military coup junta in Niger to return power to the deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum.
This Sunday expires the deadline given by the Economic Community of West African States to the coup military junta of Niger to return power to the deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum.
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It would be the first time in years that ECOWAS had tried to put down a coup in West Africa by force. The body has so far tried to explore the diplomatic route.
“We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message to be clearly conveyed to the Junta leaders in Niger that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done,” the commissioner of ECOWAS Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Abdel Fatao Musah.
The other option is an ECOWAS intervention that would take place in the midst of a divided family. Three regional regimes: Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea are on the side of the Junta.
Any ground interference would largely have to be done along the 1,000-mile border shared by Nigeria and Niger.
Nigerians have 22 times more troops than Nigerians, but they also have their internal problems. The coup leaders for their part have already asked for support from the Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Group.
The coup junta warned ECOWAS last Thursday that any military action against Niger will have “an immediate response and without notice” from the Nigerien Army.
He also called on the population to “vigilance” against “spies and foreign armed forces” and urged them to transmit to the closest authorities “all information regarding the entry or movement of suspicious individuals.”
Since that call, several groups of young people created “citizen surveillance devices” that were deployed from midnight on the main axes and access points of Niamey to control the different movements from that hour.
The Nigerian collective M62 prepares a large mobilization this Sunday in Niamey to express its support for the coup junta
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