Niger’s new military ruler warned on Saturday that any attack on the country would not be a “walk in the park,” as a delegation from West African countries made a push to find a diplomatic solution following last month’s coup.
General Abdourahamane Tchiani — who took power after army officers toppled Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 — said in a televised address that a transition of power would not go beyond three years.
He added: “If an attack were to be undertaken against us, it will not be the walk in the park some people seem to think.”
Photo: AFP
Tchiani spoke after a delegation from West African bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) visited Niger for a final diplomatic push before deciding whether to take military action against the country’s new military rulers.
They met Bazoum on Saturday, and a source close to ECOWAS said he was “in good spirits.”
Bazoum remains under detention and has been held with his family at the president’s official residence since the coup, with growing international concern over his conditions.
Images on Nigerien television showed Bazoum smiling and shaking hands with members of the delegation, led by former Nigerian head of state Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Television footage also showed Abubakar speaking with Tchiani, but the content of the exchange has not been made public.
In his televised address, Tchiani said that ECOWAS was “getting ready to attack Niger by setting up an occupying army in collaboration with a foreign army,” without saying which country he meant.
He also announced a 30-day period of “national dialogue” to draw up “concrete proposals” to lay the foundations of “a new constitutional life.”
ECOWAS leaders say they have to act after Niger became the fourth West African nation since 2020 to suffer a coup, following Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
The bloc has agreed to activate a “standby force” as a last resort to restore democracy in Niger.
ECOWAS chair and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Friday said Niamey would face “grave consequences” if the new regime allowed Bazoum’s health to worsen, an EU official said.
Niger’s military-appointed prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, told the New York Times that Bazoum would not be harmed.
“Nothing will happen to him, because we don’t have a tradition of violence in Niger,” the most senior civilian in the new regime said.
Thousands of volunteers turned out in central Niamey on Saturday, answering a call to register as civilian auxiliaries who could be mobilized to support the army.
ECOWAS defense chiefs had met this week in Ghana’s capital, Accra, to fine-tune details of a potential military operation to restore Bazoum if ongoing negotiations with coup leaders fail.
“We are ready to go any time the order is given,” Abdel-Fatau Musah, an ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs and security, said on Friday after the military chiefs’ meeting. “The D-Day is also decided.”
The Sahel region is struggling with growing insurgencies linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Frustration over the violence has in part prompted the military takeovers.
ECOWAS troops have intervened in other emergencies since 1990, including civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
However, details of any Niger operation have not been released and analysts say intervention would be politically and militarily risky.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
The Philippines yesterday slammed an “irresponsible” Chinese state media report claiming a disputed reef in the South China Sea was under Beijing’s control, saying the “status quo” was unchanged. Tiexian Reef (鐵線礁), also known as Sandy Cay Reef, lies near Thitu Island, or Pagasa, where the Philippines stations troops and maintains a coast guard monitoring base. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday said that the China Coast Guard had “implemented maritime control” over Tiexian Reef in the middle of this month. The Philippines and China have been engaged in months of confrontations over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims nearly in its
RSS