West African leaders deferred a crisis meeting scheduled for Saturday on dealing with the coup in Niger after approving the deployment of a “standby force to restore constitutional order” as soon as possible.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc had approved a military force to reinstate elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted by members of his guard on July 26.
Chiefs of staff from member states of the West African bloc were scheduled to attend a meeting on Saturday in the Ghanaian capital Accra but later indefinitely suspended it for “technical reasons”.
Sources said the meeting was originally set up to inform the organisation’s leaders about “the best options” for activating and deploying the standby force.
“The military option seriously envisaged by ECOWAS is not a war against Niger and its people but a police operation against hostage takers and their accomplices,” Niger’s Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou said on Saturday.
ECOWAS is determined to stop the sixth military takeover in the region in just three years and has severed financial transactions and electricity supplies and closed borders with landlocked Niger, blocking much-needed imports to one of the world’s poorest countries.
Thousands of coup supporters rallied in the Niger capital Niamey on Friday to protest against the ECOWAS plan to send troops.
Under pressure to stem a cascade of coups among its members, ECOWAS had previously issued a seven-day ultimatum to the coup leaders to return Bazoum to power, but the generals defied the deadline, which expired on Sunday without any action being taken.
The coup leaders have since named a new government, which met for the first time on Friday.
Source: Qatar News Agency
