According to the organization, the majority of the West African community of states ECOWAS is prepared to intervene militarily in Niger in order to restore constitutional order there. ECOWAS Commission President Abdel-Fatau Musah announced on Thursday in the Ghanaian capital Accra that all but the member states under a military government and Cape Verde were ready to deploy an intervention force that could intervene in Niger if necessary.
In Accra, the military chiefs of the ECOWAS states are meeting until Friday to discuss how to proceed in Niger after the military coup.
Musah accused the coup plotters in Niger of playing "cat and mouse" with ECOWAS. He criticized the refusal of the military to meet with envoys of the organization. Instead, the junta is constantly looking for a justification for the July 26 coup. ECOWAS is made up of 15 West African states, including Niger itself. The members Mali and Burkina Faso are each led by a military junta, both of which have already shown their support for the coup plotters in Niger. So far, ECOWAS has stressed that it wants to do everything it can to find a diplomatic solution.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced that the European Union would launch sanctions against the coup plotters in Niger. “Germany supports African efforts to resolve the crisis in Niger,” the Green politician said on the news service X, formerly Twitter. “Our goal is to restore constitutional order.” To this end, she had spoken on the phone with Musah and also with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in recent days.
Like the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations, ECOWAS is calling for the immediate release of the legitimate Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been under house arrest since the coup. The coup plotters had announced on Sunday, however, that they wanted to bring charges against Bazoum for high treason. ECOWAS reacted indignantly, declaring that this was a provocation by the coup leaders, which contradicted a will to resolve the crisis peacefully. Accordingly, the meeting of the military chiefs now serves the goal of being prepared for a military operation.
Bazoum’s election in 2021 was the first democratic transition of power in Niger, in which the military has staged four coups since independence from France in 1960. German soldiers are also currently stationed in Niger to ensure stability as part of a European Union mission. A possible ECOWAS military operation in Niger has stoked fears of further destabilisation of the Sahel region.
