ECOWAS gathers for key summit on Niger coup

Following the military chiefs of Niger’s refusal to comply with an order to reinstate the elected president, leaders of the West African grouping ECOWAS will hold an emergency summit on the coup that occurred there on Thursday.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) claims it is pursuing a diplomatic solution but has not ruled out using force to resolve the issue two weeks after the coup that deposed Mohamed Bazoum.

The 15-nation organization said in a statement on Tuesday that significant decisions are anticipated to come from the meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.

The alliance, which has been working to stop a wave of coups among its members since 2020, gave the military in charge on July 26 until last Sunday to restore Bazoum or risk using force.

However, the coup’s organizers resisted, and the deadline passed without any action.

A proclamation read out on public television on Thursday stated that the military authorities had named a new administration as their most recent act of defiance against international pressure.

The new military ruling council’s generals will oversee the defense and interior ministries while Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine will preside over the 21-member government.

The prospect of military action in Niger, a fragile country that is among the poorest in the world, has spurred discussion within ECOWAS and concerns from Algeria and Russia, two neighboring countries.

Mali and Burkina Faso, two of Niger’s neighbors who are both run by military governments who seized power in coups, have said that such intervention would be the same as declaring war on those nations.

Expectations for “serious discussion”

The coup leaders rejected a request to dispatch a team of ECOWAS, UN, and African Union representatives to the nation’s capital Niamey on Tuesday.

The coup leaders’ selection of a new prime minister earlier this week seemed to mark the beginning of the changeover to a new government.

In a surprising development, a former emir of Kano, Nigeria, announced on Wednesday that he had spoken with the coup leaders in an effort to mediate the conflict.

Lamido Sanusi Sanusi, who was not a representative of the government, said on Nigerian state television that he had spoken to the coup’s leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, and that he would give a “message” to President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria.

Sanusi, a well-known close friend of Tinubu, stated: “We came expecting that our arrival will pave the door for serious negotiations between the leaders of Niger and those of Nigeria.”

Nigeria, which is currently the ECOWAS chair, is adopting a tough stance against last month’s coup, the fifth to occur in Niger since its independence from France in 1960.

Wednesday’s coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger, according to Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, put the future of the ECOWAS organization in jeopardy.

Coups must be outlawed, and Bazoum is still the only president of Niger who is officially recognized.

“Deplorable living circumstances”

The head of the UN added to the growing outcry over the 63-year-old Bazoum’s welfare, who has been held captive by his presidential guard since July 26.

According to a UN statement, Antonio Guterres criticized “the appalling living conditions that President Bazoum and his family are reportedly living under.”

Bazoum was reportedly kept in isolation and had to eat only dry rice and pasta on Wednesday, according to CNN.

The fragile Sahel region is grappling with a jihadist insurgency that began in northern Mali in 2012, moved to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015, and is currently unsettling governments on the Gulf of Guinea.

These three countries, which have volatile histories and are among the world’s poorest, have suffered greatly as a result of the violent campaign.

The election of Bazoum in 2021 helped Niger forge strong ties with France and the United States, both of which have significant bases and troop deployments there.

Following a disagreement with the military commanders of Mali and Burkina Faso last year, France withdrew its forces from both countries and shifted its anti-jihadist campaign to Niger.