2023-08-11 13:41:53
West African chiefs of staff will meet in Ghana on Saturday, two days after their leaders gave the green light to use force to restore President Mohamed Bazoum toppled by a coup in Niger, whose fate and conditions of detention are worrying.
The chiefs of staff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will discuss Saturday in Accra, and will inform the leaders of ECOWAS “of the best options” as to their decision to activate and deploy the “standby force”, according to regional military sources.
Meeting at a summit on Thursday in Abuja, the leaders of ECOWAS have indeed decided to deploy a “standby force” to restore Mr. Bazoum, but no timetable or modalities have been revealed as to the possible use of the armed force.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara promised Thursday to send between 850 and 1,100 soldiers as a contribution to the force which, according to him, should be able to intervene “as soon as possible”.
Nigerian and Beninese troops are also to compose it, he said.
On Friday, the military regime in Niamey had not yet reacted to this decision.
More than two weeks after the coup that overthrew him on July 26, fears were growing about the conditions of detention and the fate reserved for President Mohamed Bazoum, a prisoner with his family ever since.
The European Union has expressed its “deep concern” at the “deterioration of the conditions of detention” of Mr. Bazoum, held prisoner with his wife and son.
‘Risk intervention’
President Bazoum and his family “would be, according to the latest information, deprived of food, electricity and care for several days (…). There is nothing to justify such treatment”, denounced the head of diplomacy of the EU, Josep Borrell.
The President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, also expressed Friday “his deep concerns” on “the deterioration of the conditions of detention” of Mr. Bazoum.
According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, which spoke to Mr. Bazoum, the latter described the treatment of his family as “inhuman and cruel”, saying that he had had no electricity since August 2, nor any human contact since one week.
And the prospect of a military intervention by ECOWAS raises fears for his safety: according to one of his relatives, the putschists brandished “the threat” to attack him if such an operation were launched.
ECOWAS, however, reaffirmed Thursday its hope for a resolution through diplomatic channels.
At the end of the Abuja summit, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who holds the rotating presidency of ECOWAS, said he hoped “to reach a peaceful resolution”, adding that resorting to force as a “last resort” was not excluded.
For the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), “military escalation must not push Niger and the region into a deeper humanitarian crisis” and “there is still time to avoid military confrontation and find a peaceful solution”.
Intransigence
The decisions of ECOWAS received the “full support” of France, as well as of the United States which supports “the leadership and the work of ECOWAS” for the “return to constitutional order”.
These two countries had made Niger a pivot of their system in the fight against the armed jihadists who are sowing death in a destabilized Sahel.
The threat of the use of force had been brandished for the first time on July 30 during a previous ECOWAS summit: a seven-day ultimatum had been issued to the soldiers of Niamey to restore President Bazoum, under penalty of armed intervention, no follow-up.
Since then, the new masters of Niger have shown themselves to be intransigent by having refused on Tuesday to welcome a joint delegation from ECOWAS, the African Union (AU) and the UN.
The generals in power in Niamey consider ECOWAS to be an organization “in the pay” of France, a former colonial power and unfailing ally of President Bazoum. They have made it their main target since taking power.
Just before the Abuja summit, the coup plotters also announced the formation of a new government headed by a civilian prime minister, in which the military hold key positions, particularly those in defense and security. ‘Interior.
But not all West African countries are hostile to the new power in Niger: neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, also ruled by soldiers, have shown their solidarity with Niamey.
They even claimed that if the country was attacked by ECOWAS, it would be “a declaration of war” for them.
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