Niger Republic To Withdraw Ambassadors To Nigeria, 3 Others
The Republic of Niger’s coup leaders have announced they would end the mandates of ambassadors to four countries as they face international pressure to restore the democratically elected leader they ousted last week.
According to France24, the West African defence chiefs were set to wrap up discussions about possible intervention in Niger on Friday, as mediators from the regional bloc push coup leaders in Niamey to restore constitutional order before an approaching deadline.
However, the newly installed junta said it would respond immediately to any “aggression or attempted aggression” against it by West African countries, three days before the expiry of an ultimatum to restore order given by regional bloc ECOWAS.
“Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc’s) members, with the exception of suspended friendly countries,” declared one of the putschists in a statement, alluding to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali.
Meanwhile, Niger’s coup leaders on Thursday evening announced they were ending the mandates of ambassadors to four countries, as they face international pressure to restore the democratically elected leader they ousted last week.
“The functions of the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Republic of Niger” to France, Nigeria, Togo and the United States “are terminated”, one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television.
The deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, has said that if a coup attempt to depose him is successful, “it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world.”
In a column in The Washington Post, Bazoum called on “the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order.”
The appeal was Bazoum’s first lengthy statement since his presidential guard detained him on July 26 and took control of the Niger government.
“I write this as a hostage,” Bazoum wrote.
“Niger is under attack from a military junta… and I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned.”
“This coup must end, and the junta must free everyone they have unlawfully arrested,” he wrote.
“In Africa’s troubled Sahel region, Niger stands as the last bastion of respect for human rights amid the authoritarian movements that have overtaken some of our neighbors,” he wrote.
He warned that Niger’s neighbors have increasingly invited in “criminal Russian mercenaries such as the Wagner Group at the expense of their people’s rights and dignity.”
“The entire Sahel region,” he said, “could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine.”
Terrorist movements like Boko Haram, he added, “will surely take advantage of Niger’s instability, using our country as a staging ground to attack neighboring countries and undermine peace, safety and freedom around the world.”
Niger’s junta on Thursday said it was scrapping military pacts made between Niamey and France, following last week’s coup.
“Faced with France’s careless attitude and its reaction to the situation”, the “National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland decided to scrap the cooperation agreements in the field of security and defence with this state,” one of the putschists said in a statement read out on television late on Thursday.
Niger’s junta must “come to reason” and return power to ousted President Mohamed Bazoum before the country and the wider region collapse, Niamey’s ambassador to Washington said Thursday.
“If Niger collapses, the entire Sahel will collapse, will be destabilized,” Ambassador Kiari Liman-Tinguiri told AFP in an interview on Niger’s independence day, as the future of Western economic and security aid hang in the balance for the landlocked West African country facing multiple conflicts with violent extremists.
“The junta should come to reason, realize that this affair cannot succeed, and prevent useless, inevitable suffering for our people and hand back power,” said Liman-Tinguiri, who remains a recognized diplomat in Washington and considers himself a representative of the “legitimate” President Bazoum, detained by his guards since late last month.
