A delegation f the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) led by former Nigeria’s Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, has arrived in Niamey, Niger, to negotiate with the country’s military junta.
Abdulsalami is reportedly accompanied by Muhammadu Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, and Alieu Touray, president of the ECOWAS commission.
The junta seized power in Niger last week and ousted democratically elected President Bazoum
On Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States slapped sanctions on Niger and warned that it may use force as it gave the junta a week to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum.
An ECOWAS official also told AFP that a delegation from the bloc led by former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar would visit Niger Republic on Wednesday.
The coup has worried Western countries struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency that flared in northern Mali in 2012, advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso three years later and now overshadowed fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea.
Countless numbers of civilians, troops and police have been killed across the region, many in ruthless massacres, while around 2.2 million people in Burkina Faso alone have fled their homes. The economic damage has been devastating, Bloomberg Reports.
Niger military government has also announced the re-opening of Niger’s borders with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali and Chad. However, the land border with Nigeria remains closed, according to the BBC.
The new military government in Niger is led by Abdourahmane Tiani, former head of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum’s presidential guard.
Tiani had detained Bazoum in his palace on account of bad governance and later declared himself head of state.
As part of efforts to remedy the situation, ECOWAS sent President Patrice Talon of Benin and the Chadian Leader Mahamat Déby, to Niger to speak with the coup plotters — but the actions did not yield any success.
Following a meeting on Sunday, ECOWAS announced a number of sanctions, including freezing “all commercial and financial transactions” between member states and Niger.
The organisation also threatened to resort to the use of force if Bazoum is not reinstated within a week from the bloc’s last meeting.
