West African Militaries Meet to Finalise Possible Niger Intervention

ACCRA/NIAMEY (Reuters) – West African military chiefs had been on account of maintain a second and remaining day of talks on Friday in Ghana’s capital Accra, the place they’ve been hashing out the main points of a potential navy intervention in Niger if diplomacy fails to reverse a navy coup.

Army officers deposed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have defied calls from the United Nations, the West African bloc ECOWAS and others to reinstate him, prompting regional powers to order a standby drive to be assembled.

Throughout their two-day assembly, which ends with a closing ceremony from round 1600 GMT, defence chiefs have been discussing logistics and different features of a potential deployment, based on the official schedule.

The usage of drive stays a final resort, however “if all the things else fails, the valiant forces of West Africa … are able to reply to the decision of obligation,” ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Safety Abdel-Fatau Musah mentioned at first of the occasion on Thursday.

He mentioned many of the bloc’s 15 member states had been ready to take part within the standby drive excepting these additionally below navy rule – Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea – and tiny Cape Verde.

Any escalation would additional destabilise West Africa’s impoverished Sahel area, which is already battling a decade-old Islamist insurgency.

Niger additionally has strategic significance past West Africa due to its uranium and oil reserves and position as a hub for international troops concerned within the battle towards the insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

(Writing by Alessandra Prentice; modifying by Philippa Fletcher)

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