ECOWAS member States on Friday suspended a key military meeting on the crisis in Niger, a day after saying they would muster a “standby” force in their bid to reinstate the country’s deposed leader.
Fears also mounted for elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted by members of his guard on July 26, with reports saying his detention conditions were deteriorating.
Chiefs of staff from West African ECOWAS bloc countries were set to attend a meeting on Saturday in Ghana’s capital Accra, regional military sources had said on Friday.
But they later said that it had been suspended indefinitely for “technical reasons”.
The sources said the meeting was originally set up to inform the organisation’s leaders about “the best options” for activating and deploying the standby force.
ECOWAS has yet to provide details on the force or a timetable for action, and the leaders have emphasised they still want a peaceful solution.
The last-minute cancellation came as thousands of coup supporters rallied near a French military base in Niger on Friday.
Protesters near the base on the outskirts of the capital Niamey shouted “down with France, down with ECOWAS”.
Niger’s new leaders have accused ex-colonial power France, a close Bazoum ally, of being behind the hardline ECOWAS stance against the coup.
Many brandished Russian and Niger flags and shouted their support for the country’s new strongman, General Abdourahamane Tiani.
“We are going to make the French leave! ECOWAS isn’t independent, it’s being manipulated by France,” said one demonstrator, Aziz Rabeh Ali, a member of a students’ union.
France has around 1,500 personnel in Niger as part of a force battling an eight-year jihadist insurgency.
It is facing growing hostility across the Sahel, withdrawing its anti-jihadist forces from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso last year after falling out with military governments that ousted elected leaders.
Niger’s new leaders scrapped defence agreements with France last week, while a hostile protest outside the French embassy in Niamey on July 30 prompted Paris to evacuate its citizens.
AFP
