Niger´s junta has authorized troops from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to its defence, in case ECOWAS standby force attacks to reinstate Niger´s democratically elected president.
The junta leader, Brig. Gen. Abdrahmane Tchiani, signed two executive orders authorizing the “security forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Niger territory in the event of aggression,” senior junta official Oumarou Ibrahim Sidi said late Thursday, after hosting a delegation from the two countries in the Nigerien capital, Niamey.
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Sidi did not provide further details about the military support from the two countries whose military regimes have said any use of force by the West African bloc ECOWAS against Niger’s junta would be treated as an act of war against their own nations.
Niger coup leaders: We are ready to dialogue with ECOWAS
The agreement was the latest of several actions taken by Niger’s mutinous soldiers to defy sanctions and consolidate a junta they have said would rule for up to three years, further escalating the crisis after last month’s coup in the country of more than 25 million people.
Niger was seen as one of the last democratic countries in the Sahel region below the Sahara Desert that Western nations could partner with against a growing jihadi insurgency.
The ECOWAS commission president, Omar Alieu Touray, said Friday that the bloc’s threat to use force to reinstate the deposed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum is “still on the table,” rejecting the junta’s three-year transition plan.
