2023-08-10 17:11:04
Update
August 10, 2023
19:11
The Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ordered this Thursday, at the end of its summit, the immediate activation of its intervention force following the July 26 coup in Niger.
The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Thursday ordered the deployment of the organization’s “standby force” to restore constitutional order in Niger, without immediately specifying the form and role of this deployment.
Before this decision, included in the resolutions read at the end of an extraordinary ECOWAS summit on Niger in Abuja, the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, who holds the rotating presidency of ECOWAS, stressed that he hoped “to achieve a peaceful resolution”, adding however that a recourse to force in “last resort” was not excluded.
The organization thus ordered “the deployment of the ECOWAS standby force to restore constitutional order in Niger”, declared the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Touray, at the end of the summit, without revealing the number of men constituting it, their countries of origin and their current location.
Mr. Touray however reaffirmed “the continued commitment to the restoration of constitutional order, through peaceful means”.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara said Thursday that ECOWAS had given the green light for a military operation “to start as soon as possible”. “The chiefs of staff will have other conferences to finalize things but they have the agreement of the conference of heads of state for the operation to start as soon as possible,” Ouattara told AFP. Abidjan, on his return from Abuja.
Negotiation as the basis of the approach
Niger’s post-coup military regime formed a government just ahead of the crucial summit, where West African leaders have therefore confirmed they are considering a military option to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum as a last resort.
Negotiation with the military regime in Niger must be the “basis of our approach”, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who holds the rotating presidency of ECOWAS, declared Thursday in Abuja at the opening of the summit.
Junta rejects mediation
The threat of a use of force had been brandished for the first time on July 30 during a previous ECOWAS summit: a seven-day ultimatum had been issued to the soldiers of Niamey to restore President Bazoum, under penalty of armed intervention. But nothing happened when it expired on Sunday.
Since then, the new masters of Niger have seemed closed to attempts at negotiations by ECOWAS. This raises fears that Thursday’s summit materializes the threat of military intervention, as feared as it is criticized in the region.
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