APA-Niamey (Niger) – Niger’s new junta has asked the joint mission to postpone its visit to Niamey, citing security concerns amidst an uncertainty caused by last month’s coup.
The new authorities in the uranium-rich nation have refused to receive a joint mission from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN), which was due to arrive in Niamey on Tuesday, August 8.
A note sent by the Niger Foreign Ministry to the ECOWAS Resident Representative stated that “the current context of anger and revolt among the population following the ECOWAS sanctions does not allow the delegation to be received with the necessary serenity and security.”
At a meeting on Sunday, July 30, West African leaders imposed economic and financial sanctions on Niger following the July 26 coup against President Mohamed Bazoum by a group of officers grouped around the National Council for the Protection of the Homeland (CNSP).
Niamey noted that “following these sanctions by ECOWAS, Niger’s land and air borders are closed.”
Consequently, the organization of a mission by a special flight chartered by the United Nations “requires special consideration by the Niger authorities, including a special exemption, which is not invoked in this note from the Resident Representative of ECOWAS,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added, requesting a postponement.
Nigerien diplomacy also recommends postponing “certain aspects of the program” of the mission, “including meetings with certain personalities that cannot take place for obvious security reasons.”
On Monday, August 7, Victoria Nuland, Undersecretary of State for African Affairs, met with members of the Niger junta in an attempt to find a way out of the crisis, but without success so far.
The arrival of the American diplomat in Niamey, who was reportedly unable to meet with the junta leader, comes a day after ECOWAS’ ultimatum to the junta expired.
The regional body had threatened to use force if necessary to secure the release of the junta and the restoration of constitutional order.
The chiefs of staff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met in Abuja from Wednesday, August 1 to Friday, August 3 to define the plan for a military intervention, which is not the first option of the regional organisation.
The current president of ECOWAS, Nigeria’s Bola Ahmad Tinubu, has summoned his peers to a new summit on Thursday, August 10, to discuss the political situation in Niger.
Meanwhile, the military is gradually building a state apparatus. On Monday evening, August 7, the president of the CNSP, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, appointed the economist Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as prime minister.
Minister of Economy and Finance from 2003 to 2010 under Mamadou Tandja, Lamine Zeine was, until his appointment, representative of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Chad.
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