Niger’s Prime Minister Hamoudou Mahamadou announced, on Monday, that the military putschists had asked the delegation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to “return” to Niamey, in an interview with TV5 Monde.
“The junta asked the ECOWAS delegation to return,” Mahamadou said, noting that the members of the delegation “will probably be in Niamey on Monday or Tuesday.”
The delegation of West African countries arrived, on Thursday evening, in Niamey, seeking to find a way out of the crisis, but it left after a few hours without meeting any of the leader of the military group that carried out the coup, Abd al-Rahman Tianyi, or the ousted president, Muhammad Bazoum.
A day after the expiry of the deadline set by ECOWAS for the military until Sunday at 23:00 GMT to hand over power or face the possibility of using force, the organization announced in a statement that it would hold a “new extraordinary summit” Thursday in Abuja.
Last week, the leaders of the ECOWAS armies set a framework for a “possible military intervention,” according to an official in the group, but the deadline expired without any action.
In this regard, Muhammadu said, “We are not disappointed, because our goal is not military intervention. Our goal is to restore democracy and get President Bazoum out of detention.”
He pointed to the tightening of the conditions of detention of the detained president since the coup on July 26, along with his son and wife, adding: “They cut off their electricity and cut off their water.”
But, he added, “negotiation is still possible.”
He said that the demonstrations in support of the military “do not surprise me,” stressing that “in order to fill the sports stadium as it happened, it is enough to allocate the means for that, and promise the participants to get a financial allowance,” in reference to the gathering of 30,000 supporters of the coup Sunday at the Cine Konchi stadium in Niamey.
Finally, Mohamedou considered that the “anti-French sentiments” that emerged through flags and slogans opposing the former colonial power during the pro-coup demonstrations in Niamey, are the result of “the manipulation of a small group of parties that claim to be from civil society.”
He concluded, “What we expect from France is to continue supporting Niger.”
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2023-08-07 18:38:51
