Lagos (EFE) Niger and continue to advocate for dialogue.
“Even this morning I have received a wave of phone calls about the preparations of the countries (of ECOWAS) with their respective Armies and their possible contributions. However, I told them to wait,” Tinubu said, according to a statement issued by the Nigerian Presidency late on Thursday.
“I am managing a very thorny situation,” said the Nigerian president, who guaranteed that if ECOWAS left, “other people will react,” without giving further details.
The Nigerian Presidency released this statement after Tinubu met on Thursday with a group of reputable Muslim clerics to talk again with the Niger coup junta and try to convince him to cede power.
The religious leaders already traveled to Niger on the 19th and persuaded the military junta to receive an ECOWAS delegation headed by the former chief of the Nigerian Defense Staff Abdulsalami Abubakar in Niamey, a visit that he had rejected until then. .
The option of a regional military intervention against the junta that seized power in Niger has been on the table since July 30, when the heads of State and Government of ECOWAS announced that possibility, although, since then, they have affirmed to continue betting on the dialogue to resolve the crisis.
So far, the military junta has ignored the threats and, in addition to appointing a new prime minister and forming a transitional government, has warned that the use of force will have an “instantaneous” and “strong” response.
Division between neighboring countries
Possible military actions have divided the region, where the governments of Nigeria, Benin, the Ivory Coast and Senegal have clearly confirmed the availability of their armies to intervene in Nigerien territory.
At the other extreme, Mali and Burkina Faso, neighboring countries governed by military juntas, oppose the use of force and claim that any intervention in Niger would amount to a declaration of war against them as well.
Chad, Guinea-Conakry, Algeria and Cape Verde have also rejected military intervention, advocating dialogue instead.
The coup in Niger was led on July 26 by the self-styled National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CNSP), which announced the removal of the president and the suspension of the Constitution.
The coup leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, announced on August 19 a political transition of a maximum duration of three years, but ECOWAS has rejected the plan, considering it “unacceptable” and a “subterfuge.”
