The Chiefs of Defence Staff of member-states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have declared their readiness to intervene militarily to restore democratic order in Niger Republic if diplomatic measures fail.
Rising from a meeting of the Defence Chiefs in Ghana on Thursday, the officers said they were ready to participate in a standby force that could intervene in Niger to restore the country’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was toppled on July 26 by the ruling junta led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani.
ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government chaired by Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu had on July 30 issued a seven-day ultimatum to the military to restore Bazoum or risk sanctions, including possible military action.
The regional bloc met again on August 10 in Abuja to restate their willingness to deploy the military to remove the ruling junta in Niger Republic.
However, the junta leaders, despite crippling raft of sanctions, have refused to release the detained President Bazoum and even threatened to prosecute him for what they referred to as “high treason.”
The Defence Chiefs of the 15-member regional bloc had met in Abuja, the Nigerian capital to activate its standby force for a possible intervention in the beleaguered West African country which was followed by the Accra meeting.
The Accra meeting on Thursday was reportedly attended by all member states except those under military rule and Cape Verde, according ECOWAS commissioner, Abdel-Fatau Musah, who was quoted by Aljazeera to have said.
The medium further quoted Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, to have said, “Democracy is what we stand for and it’s what we encourage,”
“The focus of our gathering is not simply to react to events, but to proactively chart a course that results in peace and promote stability.”
The coup leaders in Niger are being backed by fellow coupists in Burkina Faso and Mali, which have warned that any military intervention in Niger would be declared as an act of war, revealing a fracture in the region between its coastal countries and those in the volatile Sahel.
