West African militaries meet to finalize possible Niger intervention

[August 18, 2023]  ACCRA/NIAMEY (Reuters) - West African army chiefs were due to hold a second and final day of talks on Friday in Ghana's capital Accra, where they have been hashing out the details of a possible military intervention in Niger if diplomacy fails to reverse a military coup. 

Military personnel gesture as the ECOWAS anthem is played during a meeting of the Committee of Chiefs of Defense staff on the deployment of the ECOWAS standby force in the Republic of Niger, in Accra, Ghana. August 17, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko

Military 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 force to be assembled.

During their two-day meeting, which ends with a closing ceremony from around 1600 GMT, defense chiefs have been discussing logistics and other aspects of a possible deployment, according to the official schedule.

The use of force remains a last resort, but "if everything else fails, the valiant forces of West Africa ... are ready to answer to the call of duty," ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Abdel-Fatau Musah said at the start of the event on Thursday.

He said most of the bloc's 15 member states were prepared to participate in the standby force excepting those also under military rule - Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea - and tiny Cape Verde.

Any escalation would further destabilize West Africa's impoverished Sahel region, which is already battling a decade-old Islamist insurgency.

Niger also has strategic importance beyond West Africa because of its uranium and oil reserves and role as a hub for foreign troops involved in the fight against the insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

(Writing by Alessandra Prentice; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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