*Leaders in West Africa threaten military intervention on Niger*
By Muhammad Tijani
Kanempress 30th July 2023
Leaders in West Africa have given seven days to the junta in Niger to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, who is being held captive.Th junta in Niger was threatened withmilitary action after seizing power in a coup last week.The West African leaders also announced the immediate enforcement of a no-fly zone over Niger for all commercial flights, the closure of all land borders and the imposition of financial sanctions against the junta.This is the first time Ecowas had threatened military action to reverse the coups which took place in the region in past years.Leaders from the bloc of West African nations, Ecowas, held an emergency meeting in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Sunday to discuss the latest coup with army takeovers in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso.Ecowas said it had “zero tolerance” for coups.The regional bloc said it would “take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order” if its demands were not met within a week,” ECOWAS said.”Such measures may include the use of force,” and military chiefs are to meet “immediately” to plan for an intervention, the statement said.The junta had earlier warned it would resist any “plan of aggression against Niger” by regional or Western powers.Meanwhile hundreds of coup supporters protested outside the French embassy in the capital Niamey. Ecowas last sanctioned military intervention in 2017, when Senegalese troops were deployed to The Gambia to force long-serving ruler Yahya Jammeh to leave political office for refusing to accept defeat in elections.President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno of Chadhad gone to Niamey to tell the junta to step down.President Déby Itno is the first foreign leader to visit Niger since the coup, and had met junta deputy leader General Salifou Mody.It is not certain whether he will hold talks with General the head of the presidential guards unit, Abdourahmane Tchiani, who declared himself Niger’s new ruler.Ahead of ECOWAS meeting, General Tchiani had warned Ecowas and Western nations against any intervention.”We once again reiterate to Ecowas or any other adventurer our firm determination to defend our fatherland,” the statement said.
