Niger’s junta has authorized troops from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to its defense, raising the stakes in a standoff with other West African nations who are threatening force to reinstate Niger’s democratically elected president.
The junta leader, Brig. Gen. Abdrahmane Tchiani, signed two executive orders authorizing the "security forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Niger territory in the event of aggression,” senior junta official Oumarou Ibrahim Sidi said late Thursday, after hosting a delegation from the two countries in the Nigerien capital, Niamey.
