West African bloc says 'D-Day' set for possible Niger intervention
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[August 19, 2023]
By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila
ACCRA (Reuters) - West Africa's main regional bloc on Friday said it had
agreed an undisclosed "D-Day" for a possible military intervention to
restore democracy in Niger if diplomatic efforts fail, stressing that it
would not hold endless dialogue with the defiant junta.
The comments came at the end of a two-day meeting of West African army
chiefs in Ghana's capital Accra, where they have been hashing out the
logistics and strategy for a possible use of force in Niger. The
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has said such action
would be a last resort.
"We are ready to go anytime the order is given," ECOWAS Commissioner for
Political Affairs, Peace and Security Abdel-Fatau Musah said during the
closing ceremony. "The D-Day is also decided, which we are not going to
disclose."
He said a peaceful resolution remained the bloc's preferred option.
"As we speak we are still readying (a) mediation mission into the
country, so we have not shut any door... (but) we are not going to
engage in endless dialogue."
There was no immediate response from the junta.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Aug/19/images/ads/current/burtonview_sda_FAIR_2023.png)
Military officers deposed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26
and have defied calls from the United Nations, ECOWAS and others to
reinstate him, prompting the bloc to order a standby force to be
assembled.
"We've already agreed and fine-tuned what will be required for the
intervention," Musah said, declining to share how many troops would be
deployed and other strategic details.
Most of its 15 member states are prepared to contribute to the joint
force excepting those also under military rule - Mali, Burkina Faso and
Guinea - and Cape Verde, according to the bloc.
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![](../images/081923PIX/news_v28.jpg)
Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner,
briefs the press on plans to deploy its standby force to the
Republic of Niger, in Accra, Ghana, August 18, 2023. REUTERS/Francis
Kokoroko
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Aug/19/images/ads/current/atlantabank_quarter_FAIR_2023.png)
ECOWAS has taken a harder stance on the Niger coup, the wider
region's seventh in three years, than it did on previous ones. The
credibility of the bloc is at stake because it had said it would
tolerate no further such overthrows.
"The decision is that the coup in Niger is one coup too many for the
region, and we are putting a stop to it at this time, we are drawing
the line in the sand," Musah said.
Any intervention would spell further turmoil for West Africa's
impoverished Sahel region, which is already battling a decade-old
Islamist insurgency and a deepening hunger crisis.
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.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts continue. The United Nations special
envoy for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simao, met with
the junta's Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine on Friday.
Simao said in comments broadcast on Niger's state television that he
wanted to listen to the junta's point of view "to study together a
way for the country to return as quickly as possible to
constitutional normality and legality too. We are convinced that it
is always possible with dialogue."
(Additional reporting by Anait Miridzhanian and Alexander Winning;
Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Grant
McCool and Angus MacSwan)
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