The military junta in Niger on Tuesday said it cannot host a delegation from the West African regional bloc Ecowas, citing security concerns due to what it called widespread anger among the country's population following sanctions imposed by the bloc.
"The current context of anger and revolt among the population following the sanctions imposed by Ecowas makes it impossible to welcome this delegation in the required serenity and security," Niger's foreign affairs ministry wrote in a letter addressed to the bloc's representative in Niamey.
Coup leaders earlier named Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the country’s new prime minister in a statement read out on national television. Meanwhile US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told RFI that diplomacy was the "preferred way" to resolve the crisis as coup leaders held talks with a US envoy.
Zeine held the position of cabinet director in 2001, then finance minister in 2002 under former president Mamadou Tandja. He served as finance minister until Tandja was overthrown in a coup d'état in 2010.
In Monday’s statement, Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane also named Lieutenant-Colonel Habibou Assoumane as Niger’s new commander of the presidential guard.
Ultimatum ignored
The second-ranking US diplomat met Niger's military leaders on Monday to press to reverse the coup but reported no headway a day after an ultimatum from the West African bloc Ecowas was ignored.
Victoria Nuland, a veteran envoy and acting deputy secretary of state, said she met for more than two hours with military chiefs who ousted democratically elected Western ally Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July.
Nuland's trip, conducted in secrecy until she left, came after the expiration of a deadline set by Ecowas to reinstate Bazoum by midnight on Sunday or risk military intervention.
The 15-nation bloc is reconvening for its own diplomatic push on the crisis with a summit Thursday in Nigerian capital Abuja.
A source close to Ecowas said an immediate military intervention to restore Bazoum was not envisaged at this stage, adding that the path to dialogue still appeared open.
'Talks quite difficult'
Speaking to reporters before her departure, Nuland described her talks as "extremely frank and at times quite difficult".
She said she offered the coup leaders "a number of options" to exit the crisis and restore the relationship with the United States, which like other Western nations has suspended aid.
"I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer," she said.
She added that the coup leaders did not respond to her requests to meet Niger's self-proclaimed new leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, or the detained elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, although US officials have been in touch with Bazoum by telephone.
Nuland said she met Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, who has been named the new military chief of staff and who has worked closely in the past with the United States, which along with former colonial power France has based anti-jihadist operations in the Sahel out of Niger.
Nuland said she warned Niger against following neighbouring Mali in bringing in Russia's Wagner mercenaries.
"The people who have taken this action here understand very well the risks to their sovereignty when Wagner is invited in," said Nuland, who is known for her hawkish stance on Russia.
Diplomacy 'preferred'
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed on Monday the need for the international community to find a diplomatic route out of the coup.
"Diplomacy is certainly the preferred way of resolving this situation," he told RFI.
"It is Ecowas' current approach. It is our approach."
🔴🎙 INVITE EXCLUSIF sur @RFI - Le secrétaire d'État américain Antony Blinken au micro de @mikaelponge
— RFI (@RFI) August 8, 2023
Au menu :
► L'accord céréalier en mer Noire, dont la #Russie s'est retirée le 17 juillet 2023.
► La situation au #Niger, où un millier de soldats américains sont déployés. pic.twitter.com/UwJoN0A1nC
Niger's neighbours have strongly rejected the possibility of a regional military intervention.
Mali said it and Burkina Faso - which have both been suspended from Ecowas over their own military coups - were sending a joint official delegation to Niamey to show "solidarity with the people of Niger".
They have said military intervention would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also cautioned against a military solution, which President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said would be "a direct threat" to his North African country.
Senators in regional heavyweight Nigeria urged everyone to focus on the "political and diplomatic option".
(with AFP)
