Niger’s new military ruler warned on Saturday that any attack on the country would not be a “walk in the park,” as a delegation from West African countries made a push to find a diplomatic solution following last month’s coup.
General Abdourahamane Tchiani — who took power after army officers toppled Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 — said in a televised address that a transition of power would not go beyond three years.
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.”
Photo: AFP
Tchiani spoke after a delegation from West African bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) visited Niger for a final diplomatic push before deciding whether to take military action against the country’s new military rulers.
They met Bazoum on Saturday, and a source close to ECOWAS said he was “in good spirits.”
Bazoum remains under detention and has been held with his family at the president’s official residence since the coup, with growing international concern over his conditions.
Images on Nigerien television showed Bazoum smiling and shaking hands with members of the delegation, led by former Nigerian head of state Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Television footage also showed Abubakar speaking with Tchiani, but the content of the exchange has not been made public.
In his televised address, Tchiani said that ECOWAS was “getting ready to attack Niger by setting up an occupying army in collaboration with a foreign army,” without saying which country he meant.
He also announced a 30-day period of “national dialogue” to draw up “concrete proposals” to lay the foundations of “a new constitutional life.”
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 bloc has agreed to activate a “standby force” as a last resort to restore democracy in Niger.
ECOWAS chair and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Friday said Niamey would face “grave consequences” if the new regime allowed 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 said.
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 Ghana’s 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.”
The Sahel region is struggling with growing insurgencies linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State 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.
However, details of any Niger operation have not been released and analysts say intervention would be politically and militarily risky.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS