Niger Coup Deadline: ECOWAS Billed For Meeting In Abuja
Meeting scheduled for Thursday
Niger Coup: ECOWAS To Meet Over Failed Deadline
Heads of government, Economic Community of West Africa States, ECOWAS, are scheduled for a fresh meeting over the Niger Republic coup, as the deadline earlier given to the country’s couposts to hand over power to the democratically government of President Mohamed Bazoum.
Rather than reinstate the ousted Bazoum, the couposts broke off ties with Nigeria, Benin Republic and a number of other countries within the West African sub region sympathetic to the ousted President.
Led by Commander General, Abdourahamane Tchiani, the couposts insist they will not bow to foreign pressure, warning that they will do whatever is necessary to defend Niger's territorial integrity.
Meanwhile, military chiefs from pro-Bazoum neighbours disclosed Friday that they have agreed on a plan for possible military intervention if diplomacy fails.
The defence chiefs from host Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Cote D’ivoire, Cabo Verde and the Republic of Benin, met in Abuja.
The meeting followed a failed high-power delegation conciliatory visit to the coupists led by former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, rtd.
Subsequently, ECOWAS chairman and Nigeria's President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Monday, transmitted a notice of meeting to union members, scheduled for Abuja, Thursday.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has convened another Extraordinary Summit of the Authority on the political situation in the Republic of Niger. The Summit will hold in Abuja, on Thursday, August 10, 2023," the statement read in part.
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