NIGER | ECOWAS To hold New Niger Summit, US Envoy meets Coup Delegation

ABUJA, Nigeria – August 07, 2023. President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)  Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will convene another Extraordinary Summit of the Authority on the political situation in the Republic of Niger.

The Summit which will be held in Abuja, on Thursday, August 10, 2023, will be considering and discussing the political situation and recent developments in Niger

This will be the second ECOWAS meeting to discuss the Niger coup.

At the end of its first meeting, over a week ago, ECOWAS condemned the coup in Niger and imposed sanctions on the land-locked country.

The sanctions include the closure of land and air borders and the freezing of accounts. Also, ECOWAS issued a seven days ultimatum for the reinstatement of President Mohamed Bazoum by the putschists.

The ultimatum ended yesterday (Sunday) and there has since been uncertainty about what the next line of action will be for the regional bloc.

ECOWAS had threatened to use force if its demand is not met by the Niger junta but many in Nigeria, including the country’s parliament, are opposed to the deployment of troops. Nigeria is expected to provide a large chunk of the troops that will be sent to Niger if ECOWAS decides to use force.

The threat by ECOWAS, however, appears not to have moved the putschists in Niger.

Meanwhile, in a significant diplomatic push to restore democratic rule in what has been a key US partner nation, acting deputy secretary of state Victoria Nuland said Monday she had met with Niger’s military leaders but made no immediate headway in reversing the putsch.

Nuland said she met for more than two hours with Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, who has been named the new military chief of staff, and other leaders in Niger's capital Niamey.

“These conversations were extremely frank and at times quite difficult,” Nuland said as she prepared to fly out of Niamey.

Nuland is the highest level US official to meet in person with the military putschists. Her trip to the capital city of Niamey – made at the request of Secretary of State Antony Blinken – comes less than two weeks after members of Niger’s presidential guard seized power.

It also comes one day after the deadline set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the military junta to restore democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum to power or risk a military intervention.

“This was a first conversation in which the United States was offering its good offices if there is a desire on the part of the people who are responsible for this to return to the constitutional order,” she said.

“I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer.”

She said the putschists did not respond to her requests to meet Niger’s Coup leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, or the detained elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, although US officials have been in touch with Bazoum by telephone.

Nuland said that she gave a “number of options” on ways to reverse the coup.

She said she also made clear the consequences for relations with the United States if Niger does not restore Bazoum or follows the path of neighboring Mali in calling in Russia’s Wagner mercenaries.

“I hope they will keep the door open to diplomacy. We made that proposal. We’ll see,” she said.

She said that Barmou was well-acquainted with cooperation with the United States through his past involvement with special forces.

There are roughly 1,000 US troops currently stationed in Niger. Barmou, the junta leader with whom she met Monday, had worked with US special forces in Niger for many years, “so we were able to go through, in considerable detail, the risks to aspects of our cooperation that he has historically cared about a lot,” Nuland said.

The acting deputy secretary also sought to emphasize the threat from the Wagner Group, with whom some of the putschists have reportedly begun to engage. Although US officials have said that the group, which has a significant presence in Africa, did not have a role in instigating the coup, its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has already sought to exploit the situation.

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