BY Aymeric VINCENOT AFP
The African Union mentioned Tuesday that it had suspended Niger’s membership within the wake of a army coup, however responded cautiously to a threatened army operation to revive its ousted president, as Nigerien TV mentioned 12 troopers have been killed in a brand new assault by suspected jihadists.
Nationwide guards finishing up an anti-jihadist operation within the southwestern area of Tillaberi have been ambushed on Sunday night time, the broadcaster Tele Sahel mentioned, including that the troops inflicted “heavy losses” on the enemy.
Niger’s armed forces, battling an eight-year jihadist insurgency, have misplaced no less than 29 males since officers toppled elected president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.
The coup — justified by its leaders over Bazoum’s alleged failure to stem the insurgents — triggered a bustup with France, Niger’s staunchest ally, and the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS).
ECOWAS has imposed commerce sanctions on Niger and accepted the deployment of a “standby drive to revive constitutional order” in Niamey.
The bloc is hazy in regards to the plan intimately however insists it is going to intervene if makes an attempt at a diplomatic answer finally fail.
Because the disaster neared the top of its fourth week, the AU mentioned Tuesday that it was suspending Niger from its ranks however indicated reservations in regards to the ECOWAS menace following sturdy variations amongst its members.
The AU mentioned its Peace and Safety Council had requested the physique’s Fee to hold out “an evaluation of the financial, social and safety implications” of deploying the drive.
– Troubled Sahel –
The coup has heightened worldwide worries over the Sahel, which faces rising jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Niger is the fourth ECOWAS nation since 2020 to endure a coup, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.
The nation’s new army ruler, Basic Abdourahamane Tiani, has proposed a three-year transition again to democracy, a name rejected by ECOWAS, which despatched a delegation to go to Niger on the weekend in a renewed diplomatic push.
Not like a earlier ECOWAS mission in early August, the envoys held talks with Tiani and likewise met Bazoum, who’s being held together with his household on the presidential palace.
Delegation chief and former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar gave a optimistic evaluation of the talks.
“I need to say that our go to to Niger has been very fruitful and that it has opened an avenue to begin speaking, and hopefully we’ll get someplace,” he mentioned.
However Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for politics and safety, described the three-year transition proposal as “a joke” and mentioned the bloc would “by no means settle for it”.
“We would like constitutional order to be restored as quickly as attainable,” he instructed Al Jazeera in an interview broadcast on Monday.
“Navy motion will not be off the desk,” he warned.
In Johannesburg, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, China’s Wu Peng, Africa affairs director-general on the overseas ministry, emphasised Beijing’s coverage of “non-interference”.
“This sort of drawback in Niger ought to be solved by means of peaceable dialogue by means of ECOWAS and the African Union,” he mentioned.
The AU communique mentioned it “strongly rejects any exterior interference by any actor or any nation outdoors the Continent… together with engagements by non-public army corporations.”
Russia’s Wagner group is probably the most distinguished paramilitary group energetic on the continent.
– Provides concern –
The UN’s World Meals Programme (WFP) warned final week that sanctions and border closures have been crimping important meals and medical provides into Niger.
ECOWAS has imposed sanctions whereas Benin and Nigeria have closed their borders.
Nonetheless, the juntas in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali have mentioned that any army intervention in Niger could be thought-about a “declaration of battle” in opposition to their international locations.
Round 300 vans arrived in Niger’s capital of Niamey on Monday from Burkina Faso, most of them carrying meals, the Nigerien authorities mentioned.
The Sahel state ranks among the many most turbulent and poorest international locations on this planet, usually mendacity on the backside of the UN’s Human Improvement Index, a benchmark of prosperity.
In an article for France’s conservative Le Figaro newspaper Tuesday, Bazoum’s Paris-based daughter Zazia Bazoum Mohamed mentioned her father, in refusing to resign, had “determined to battle to save lots of democracy”, whereas urging his launch.
Bazoum’s election in 2021 was a landmark, opening the way in which to the nation’s first peaceable transition of energy.
He survived two tried coups earlier than lastly being toppled in what marked the fifth putsch since Niger gained independence from France in 1960.
