NIAMEY: A delegation from West Africa’s ECOWAS bloc arrived in Niger and met ousted president Mohamed Bazoum on Saturday, as they sought a peaceful rather than military solution to the country’s woes after army officers seized power in a coup.
Bazoum was “in good spirits,” a source close to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) told AFP — though he remains under detention and his electricity was still cut off.
He has been held with his family at the president’s official residence since the coup, with growing international concern over his conditions in detention.
The ECOWAS delegation was also in Niger for talks with the officers who seized power from Bazoum on July 26.
Led by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar the West African representatives met with some of the senior officers who seized power, said the source, without saying if they included coup leader General Abdourahamane Tiani.
A previous ECOWAS delegation led by Abubakar earlier this month had tried and failed to meet him, or Bazoum.
Saturday’s visit came after ECOWAS military chiefs announced they were ready to intervene to reinstate the ousted president.
ECOWAS has agreed to activate a “standby force” as a last resort to restore democracy in Niger.
But it says it favors dialogue to defuse the crisis.
Meanwhile, Niger’s new military ruler said Saturday a transition of power would not go beyond three years, and warned that any attack on the country would not be easy for those involved.
“Our ambition is not to confiscate power,” General Abdourahamane Tiani said in a televised address. Any transition of power “would not go beyond three years,” he said.
But he added: “If an attack were to be undertaken against us, it will not be the walk in the park some people seem to think.”
ECOWAS chair and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Friday threatened Niamey with “grave consequences” if the new regime allows Bazoum’s health to worsen, an EU official said.
Niger’s military-appointed prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, told The New York Times that Bazoum would not be harmed.
“Nothing will happen to him, because we don’t have a tradition of violence in Niger,” the most senior civilian in the new regime told the daily.
Niger’s new rulers have so far shown little flexibility and warned against an “illegal aggression.”
Thousands of volunteers turned out in central Niamey on Saturday answering a call to register as civilian auxiliaries who could be mobilized to support the army.
ECOWAS defense chiefs had met this week in the Ghanaian capital Accra to fine-tune details of a potential military operation to restore Bazoum if ongoing negotiations with coup leaders fail.
“We are ready to go any time the order is given,” Abdel-Fatau Musah, an ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs and security, said on Friday after the military chiefs’ meeting.
“The D-Day is also decided.”
ECOWAS leaders say they have to act after Niger became the fourth West African nation since 2020 to suffer a coup, following Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
The Sahel region is struggling with growing jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group. Frustration over the violence has in part prompted the military takeovers.
ECOWAS troops have intervened in other emergencies since 1990, including civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ivory Coast, Benin and Nigeria are expected to contribute troops to a Niger mission.
But details of any Niger operation have not been released and analysts say intervention would be politically and militarily risky, especially for regional player Nigeria.
Nigeria is already struggling to contain violence from several armed groups at home, and leaders in the country’s north have warned about spillover from Niger across the border if there is an intervention.
The coup leaders have defiantly threatened to charge Bazoum with treason. But they have also said they are open to talks.
The military-ruled governments in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso have also said an intervention in Niger would be seen as a declaration of war against them.
In the hours following the coup, France, which fields 1,500 troops in Niger, was asked to back a potential armed move to restore Bazoum to office, sources close to the affair told AFP, confirming a report in Le Monde daily.
“But the loyalists changed sides and joined the putschists. So the conditions were not right to meet the request for support,” the source said.
ECOWAS has already applied trade and financial sanctions on Niger, while France, Germany and the United States have suspended aid programs.
Also on Saturday, the US, a major partner of Niger in the fight against extremists, said that a new ambassador had been installed in Niamey.
Kathleen FitzGibbon, a career diplomat with extensive experience in Africa, will not however officially present her letter of assignment to the new authorities in place, as Washington does not recognize them.
ECOWAS delegation meets ousted president in coup-hit Niger, general proposes transition period
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ECOWAS delegation meets ousted president in coup-hit Niger, general proposes transition period
- Saturday’s visit came after ECOWAS military chiefs announced they were ready to intervene to reinstate the ousted president
Philippines probes Bondi Beach suspects’ visit, downplays militant training reports
- Suspects spent 4 weeks in the Philippines last month
- Govt says no evidence visit linked to militant activity
MANILA: The Philippine National Police launched on Wednesday a probe into the recent visit to the country of a father and son whom Australian authorities have identified as suspects in last week’s mass shooting in Sydney.
Two gunmen killed 15 people and wounded dozens of others during Hanukkah celebrations at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday.
The suspected shooters, identified by Australian authorities as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram, traveled to the Philippines last month.
The news has prompted various media outlets to speculate that there are links between their visit and the Sydney attack — an allegation Manila has since denied.
The investigation launched by the Philippine police seeks to establish the purpose of the suspects’ travel and their movement while in the country.
“This matter is being investigated as we seek to determine the reason behind their visit to the Philippines. We are finding out which places they went to, who they talked to, and where they stayed while they were in the country,” Philippine National Police acting chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said in a statement.
Bureau of Immigration data shows that 50-year-old Akram and his 24-year-old son arrived in the Philippines from Sydney on Nov. 1. They left the country on Nov. 28 via a connecting flight from Davao in the southern Philippines to Manila, with Sydney as their final destination.
According to a police statement, Philippine authorities, including the government and military, said there was no evidence the trip was related to any militant activity in the country and was “not considered as a serious security concern.”
Australian media reports linking the suspects to Daesh and alleging the group used the Philippines as its training ground were denied by the Philippine government.
“Information from operating units on the ground indicates no ongoing training and recruitment,” Department of National Defense spokesperson Arsenio Andolong told Arab News.
“There is no indication of imminent domestic terrorist threats.”
Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro also dismissed the claims as “misleading” and “portraying the Philippines as a training hotspot for violent extremist groups.”
She told reporters that the National Security Council “maintained there is no confirmation to allegations that the father-and-son suspects in the recent mass shooting in Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, received training in the Philippines.”
Castro added that Philippine security forces “have significantly weakened” Daesh-affiliated groups since the 2017 Marawi siege.
The southern Philippine city in Mindanao island was in 2017 taken over by groups affiliated with Daesh. After five months of fighting and hundreds of deaths, the Philippine army reclaimed the area.
“Both UN and the US government assessments indicate that these groups now operate in a fragmented and diminished capacity,” Castro said.
“Violence in Mindanao is largely driven by historical conflicts and local clan disputes rather than the operational capacity of ISIS-affiliated organizations.”
