Niger: ECOWAS leaders threaten to use force against coup plotters

West African nations grouped under the banner of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have threatened to use force if the new military authorities of Niger did not restore ousted President Mohammed Bazoum.

They gave Niger, one week to do so. They proceeded to place an economic ban on Niger this Sunday, July 30th, 2023.

In response to the sixth coup in the Sahel area in recent years, the 15-nation ECOWAS group fired tear gas into the air as pro-junta demonstrators set fire to French flags and stoned the former colonial power’s embassy in Niamey, the capital of Niger.

Images showed people being put into ambulances with bloody legs while there were fires raging near the French Embassy’s walls.

Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States demanded that the constitutional order be fully restored at an emergency summit held in Nigeria to discuss the coup last week and threatened retaliation if it wasn’t.

According to their statement, “Such measures may include the use of force,” and “Defence officials will meet immediately to that effect.”

Economic sanctions

According to ECOWAS and the eight-member West African Economic and Monetary Union, borders with Niger would be closed, commercial aircraft will be prohibited, financial transactions will stop, national assets will be frozen, and aid will come to an immediate end.

The coup’s perpetrators’ assets would also be frozen and they would be prohibited from traveling, it added.

ECOWAS imposed similar sanctions on Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea after coups in those countries over the past three years. However, the juntas only committed to timelines for restoring constitutional authority, despite the fact that financial sanctions induced debt defaults, especially in Mali.

International condemnations

The African Union, the European Union, the United States, and former colonial power France are just a few of the nations that have strongly denounced the military coup in Niger that started on Wednesday.

None of them have agreed to recognise General Abdourahamane Tiani’s new government.

There are forces from the United States, France, Italy, and Germany engaged in military training and operations against Islamist rebels. Additionally, uranium, a radioactive metal commonly utilised in nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, and cancer treatment, is produced in Niger at the seventh-highest rate in the world.

Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries, and the World Bank estimates that it receives about $2.0 billion in yearly official development assistance.

Mimi Mefo Info