ABUJA, Nigeria — Niger’s junta approved troops from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso to come back to its protection and requested the French ambassador to go away the nation Friday, elevating the stakes in a standoff with different West African nations who’re threatening drive to reinstate Niger’s democratically elected president.
The junta chief, Brig. Gen. Abdrahmane Tchiani, signed two government orders authorizing the “security forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Niger territory in the event of aggression,” senior junta official Oumarou Ibrahim Sidi stated late Thursday, after internet hosting a delegation from the 2 international locations within the Nigerien capital, Niamey.
Sidi didn’t present additional particulars in regards to the army help from the 2 international locations whose army regimes have stated any use of drive by the West African bloc ECOWAS towards Niger‘s junta could be handled as an act of struggle towards their very own nations.
The Nigerien Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated French Ambassador Sylvain Itte was requested to go away Niger inside 48 hours in a letter that accused him of ignoring an invite for a gathering with the ministry.
The letter dated Friday, a replica of which was seen by The Associated Press, additionally cited “actions of the French government contrary to the interests of Niger.”
Before final month’s ouster of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, Niger, a former French colony, had was seen because the West’s final main accomplice towards jihadi violence within the Sahel area under the Sahara Desert, which is rife with anti-French sentiment.
The French Embassy in Niger’s capital, Niamey, was attacked within the early days of the July 26 coup. The army leaders of the coup have requested assist from personal Russian army firm Wagner to stem extremist assaults.
The standing of the request following the demise of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in a aircraft crash this week is unknown. ECOWAS stated on Friday that together with the African Union, it “stands against the use of private military contractors.”
The junta’s settlement with Mali and Burkina Faso was the newest of a number of actions taken by Niger‘s mutinous soldiers to defy sanctions and consolidate a junta they have said would rule for up to three years, further escalating the crisis after last month’s coup within the nation of greater than 25 million folks.
The ECOWAS Commission president, Omar Alieu Touray, stated Friday that the bloc’s risk to make use of drive to reinstate Bazoum was “still on the table,” rejecting the junta’s three-year transition plan.
Eleven of the bloc’s 15 international locations, not together with the military-ruled international locations of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger itself, have expressed commitments to deploy troops to revive democracy in Niger as soon as a choice is made to intervene.
The bloc would within the meantime proceed to discover diplomatic choices to reverse the coup, Touray informed reporters in Nigeria’s capital metropolis of Abuja.
The newest of such diplomatic efforts got here Thursday when Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who’s the chairman of the regional bloc, despatched a delegation of Islamic leaders to talk with the junta.
Touray stated the West African heads of state would resolve on when to make use of drive each time it looks like all diplomatic means have failed.
“ECOWAS cannot just fold its hands,” he asserted.
Details of what has been known as the ECOWAS “standby” drive haven’t be launched. Regional officers have steered any army intervention could be just like the drive deployed in Gambia in 2017 to drive Yahya Jammeh out of energy as president after he refused to concede an election loss.
The junta has been exploiting grievances among the many inhabitants towards Niger’s former colonial ruler, France. It additionally has accused Bazoum’s authorities of failing to do sufficient to guard the nation from Islamic extremists, and has requested the Russian mercenary group Wagner for assist.
On Friday, Niger additionally confronted new sanctions when the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation – which has signed $750 million in grant packages with the nation since 2008 – suspended operations that targeted on enhancing agriculture, girls’s literacy and roads in Niger. The coup was “contrary to the principles of democratic governance,” the U.S. company stated.
ECOWAS already has joined Western and European international locations in imposing sanctions towards Niger, together with slicing the availability of its electrical energy from Nigeria and the closure of borders with the international locations’ neighbors.
Touray acknowledged Friday that these sanctions have resulted in “serious socio-economic crises” in Niger, however stated the sanctions had been “for the interest of the people of Niger.”
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Associated Press journalist Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali contributed to this report.
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