[1/2]Military personnel gesture because the ECOWAS anthem is performed throughout a gathering of the Committee of Chiefs of Defense employees on the deployment of the ECOWAS standby pressure within the Republic of Niger, in Accra, Ghana. August 17, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko Acquire Licensing Rights
ACCRA/NIAMEY, Aug 18 (Reuters) – West African military chiefs had been due to maintain a second and remaining day of talks on Friday in Ghana’s capital Accra, the place they’ve been hashing out the small print of a possible army intervention in Niger if diplomacy fails to reverse a army coup.
Military officers deposed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have defied calls from the United Nations, the West African bloc ECOWAS and others to reinstate him, prompting regional powers to order a standby pressure to be assembled.
During their two-day assembly, which ends with a closing ceremony from round 1600 GMT, defence chiefs have been discussing logistics and different facets of a possible deployment, in accordance to the official schedule.
The use of pressure stays a final resort, however “if everything else fails, the valiant forces of West Africa … are ready to answer to the call of duty,” ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Abdel-Fatau Musah mentioned at first of the occasion on Thursday.
He mentioned a lot of the bloc’s 15 member states had been ready to take part within the standby pressure excepting these additionally below army rule – Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea – and tiny Cape Verde.
Any escalation would additional destabilise West Africa’s impoverished Sahel area, which is already battling a decade-old Islamist insurgency.
Niger additionally has strategic significance past West Africa due to its uranium and oil reserves and position as a hub for international troops concerned within the battle in opposition to the insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Writing by Alessandra Prentice; enhancing by Philippa Fletcher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
