Pressure mounted Saturday on the leaders of a coup in Niger on the eve of a deadline set by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS for the military to relinquish control or face possible armed intervention.
Former colonial power France, with which the junta broke military ties shortly after taking power on July 26, said it would โfirmlyโ back whatever course of action ECOWAS took after the Sunday deadline expired.
โThe future of Niger and the stability of the entire region are at stake,โ the office of French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said after she held talks in Paris with Nigerโs prime minister, Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou.
ECOWAS military chiefs of staff have agreed a plan for a possible intervention to respond to the crisis, the latest of several coups to hit Africaโs Sahel region since 2020.
โAll the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out,โ ECOWAS commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah said on Friday.
These included โthe resources needed, and including the how and when we are going to deploy the forceโ, he added.
โWe want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them [the junta] that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done,โ Musah said.
Niger has played a key part in Western strategies to combat jihadist insurgencies that have plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.
Yet anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often through the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. Moscow has warned against armed intervention from outside Niger.
โError of Judgementโ
The coup โis an error of judgement that goes totally against the interests of the countryโ, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu told AFP in an interview Saturday.
Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, relies heavily on foreign aid that could be pulled if President Mohamed Bazoum is not reinstated as chief of state, he added.
The junta has warned it will meet force with force.
Mali and Burkina Faso, where military juntas have taken power since 2020, have also said that any regional intervention would be tantamount to a โdeclaration of warโ against them.
Bazoum, 63, has been held by the coup plotters with his family in his official Niamey residence since July 26.
In a column in The Washington Post on Thursday โ his first lengthy statement since his detention โ Bazoum said a successful putsch would โhave devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire worldโ.
Bazoum, who in 2021 won an election that ushered in Nigerโs first-ever transfer of power from one civilian government to another, urged โthe US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional orderโ.
Nigeria has cut electricity supplies to its neighbour Niger, raising fears for the humanitarian situation in the country, while Niamey has closed the vast Sahel countryโs borders, complicating food deliveries.
Washington said that it had suspended some aid programmes but pledged that โlife-saving humanitarian and food assistance will continueโ.
In Nigeria, senior politicians have urged President Bola Tinubu to reconsider the threatened military intervention.
โThe Senate calls on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as chairman of ECOWAS to further encourage other leaders of ECOWAS to strengthen the political and diplomatic options,โ he said.
Senators from northern Nigerian states, seven of which share a combined border of roughly 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) with Niger, have already advised against any intervention until all other options had been exhausted.
On Saturday, the countryโs largest opposition grouping denounced the potential military operation in Niger as โabsolutely thoughtlessโ.
The Coalition of United Political Parties argued: โThe Nigerian military have been overstretched over the years battling terrorism and all manners of insurgency that are still very active.โ
Tinubu himself on Thursday urged ECOWAS to do โwhatever it takesโ to achieve an โamicable resolutionโ of the crisis in Niger.
