France has 1,500 soldiers in Niamey, engaged in the fight against jihadists under Nigerien command, while the United States has a force of a thousand men.
By HR AFP Paris and its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, have given their support to ECOWAS. © FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP Published on 08/11/2023 at 07:39
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France expressed, Thursday, August 10, its total support for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The latter has chosen to validate a military option, in order to resolve the diplomatic crisis in Niger as quickly as possible. However, the trail of a last chance for a peaceful outcome remains open.
Paris supports “all the conclusions adopted on the occasion of the extraordinary summit” of ECOWAS in Abuja, including the decision to activate the deployment of a “standby force”, meant the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Paris has always believed that a military option should remain on the table since the July 26 coup. Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna has hammered home the coup “too many” in the region and argued that restoring constitutional order was crucial for the country and its struggling neighbors. with the jihadist movements and the Russian influence of the Wagner group.
Could the support of European and American partners go as far as support for a military operation? According to Western officials, no request from ECOWAS has been made at this stage. But in Paris, it is implied that any request would be studied closely.
READ ALSONiger: the putschists have formed their government
France has 1,500 soldiers in Niamey, engaged in the fight against jihadists under Nigerien command, while the United States has a force of a thousand men. French President Emmanuel Macron, on vacation at Fort Brégançon in the south of France, took stock Thursday evening after the ECOWAS summit with his “ministers, his teams” and the French ambassador. in Niamey, said the Elysée.
“He also continues to meet with his European and American partners, as well as with his ECOWAS counterparts,” the same source added. Concern is also growing about the fate of President Bazoum, kept isolated by the military in increasingly critical conditions, without running water, without electricity and without access to a doctor, according to concordant sources.
President Bazoum, potential hostage
At the same time, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken declared that his country supported “the leadership and the work” of the regional organization to allow the return to constitutional order in Niger, without however explicitly approving the decision to deploy its strength.
For now, ECOWAS is still hoping for a diplomatic solution, but its message, relayed by Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, to the soldiers who took power in Niamey is very clear: the threat of intervention is more than serious and the operation can “start as soon as possible”.
We must try “to the end” any attempt at mediation, also summarizes a Western official, while noting that all attempts in this area have so far yielded nothing and that the authors of the putsch remain intransigent.
READ ALSONiger: the putschists have formed their government
A military intervention to release elected President Mohamed Bazoum, his wife and son, and restore him to office could therefore materialize very soon. “We are concerned for him, his family, his safety and his health,” said Antony Blinken. We have told military leaders that we will hold them accountable for his safety and health,” he said.
President Bazoum is taken “hostage”, with the risk that he will become a target of the military in the event of armed intervention by ECOWAS, Western sources point out. France, like its partners, does not recognize the regime set up in Niamey by the military, including the government presented on Thursday and partly composed of civilians.
2023-08-11 05:39:00
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