Troops of the Economic Community of West African States have indicated their readiness to participate in a standby force that could intervene in the Republic of Niger.
According to Al Jazeera, at a meeting in Ghana’s capital, Accra, on Thursday, the defense chiefs said they were prepared to reinstate the democratic order in Niger.
The ECOWAS defense chiefs began their meeting in Ghana on Thursday.
Since the military juntas in Niger ousted President Mohamed Bazoum and took over power, ECOWAS has been threatening the landlocked country with a military intervention as a last resort to restore democratic order and has issued a 7-day ultimatum in that regard, which Niger did not succumb to.
Recall that the Authority of Heads of State of ECOWAS had ordered the defense chiefs to activate its standby force.
But the Accra meeting of top army commanders on Thursday and Friday came after fresh violence in Niger, with jihadists killing at least 17 soldiers in an ambush, the defense ministry said.
Twenty more soldiers were wounded, six seriously, in the heaviest losses since the July 26 coup, when the presidential guard ousted Bazoum and detained him and his family.
Jihadist insurgencies have gripped Africa’s Sahel region for more than a decade, breaking out in northern Mali in 2012 before spreading to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
The unrest across the region has killed thousands of troops, police officers, and civilians, and forced millions to flee their homes.
Anger at the bloodshed has fuelled military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020, with Niger the latest to fall.
Africans of goodwill have warned against ECOWAS intervention against Niger’s coup leaders, stressing that a diplomatic approach should be used instead.
