2023-08-02 18:32:17
The President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, was overthrown on Wednesday July 26, 2023. This is the 5th putsch in the sub-region since 2020 if we take into account the two coups perpetrated by Assimi Goïta in Mali. To avoid the effects of contagion in other countries, ECOWAS intends to put an end to the mistrust of the putschists.
Of the 15 member states of ECOWAS, Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso are in military transition. And now, Niger, which has been added. The syndrome is likely to affect other countries. In Sierra, a coup attempt against President Maada Bio was foiled on August 1st.
In 2022, the Embalo regime was also shaken by an attempted coup. At this pace, the sub-region risks falling under the control of the juntas.
After allowing constitutional coups in Togo, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, and military coups in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso, ECOWAS is becoming aware of the threat hanging over it. and stakes its own survival. She wants to restore her image through military intervention to restore constitutional order in Niger.
Until then, unable to enforce the transition schedules of the various juntas, despite multiple sanctions, will ECOWAS manage to stop the putschists in solidarity with each other?
A meeting of ECOWAS chiefs of staff has already opened on August 2 in Abuja and will continue until August 4 with the aim of defining the ways and means of launching a military operation against the Nigerien junta. . At which meeting, moreover, the chiefs of staff of Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea Bissau are absent.
This decision by ECOWAS is not unanimous. The Nigerian Senate, for its part, voted against any participation of its army in the military intervention against the Nigerian junta which deposed Mohamed Bazoum.
Since its creation on May 28, 1975, the sub-regional organization has set itself the main mission of fostering integration by promoting peace within States. Will ECOWAS – which is gambling on its survival – go so far as to dislodge the Nigerien junta? A look back at the various ECOWAS military interventions.
Over the past three decades, relying on its Ceasefire Monitoring Brigade (Ecomog, in English), ECOWAS has intervened on several occasions to put an end to the civil wars in Liberia (1999), by Sierra Leone (1997-2000) and Guinea-Bissau (1998-1999 and 2012). As well as in Côte d’Ivoire (2003-2004) and Gambia (2017).
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