West African Neighbors Threaten to Invade Niger in Response to Coup

The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), following an emergency meeting on Sunday, announced that it would consider “force” to oust the leaders of a coup d’etat in Niger last week, rejecting their authority and declaring “zero tolerance for unconstitutional change of government.”

ECOWAS is currently led by neighboring Nigeria, the largest economy on the continent. The group claimed that its aggressive rejection of the coup received support from partners including “the African Union, United Nations, European Union, United States of America, China, Russia, la Francophonie, the Commonwealth, [and] the OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation].”

A group of soldiers, reportedly with the backing of the Nigerien presidential guard, appeared on national television in the country on Thursday announcing that they had overthrown democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum and were holding him captive, but unharmed, in his residence. The group identified itself as the “National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.”

The coup attempt is the third against Bazoum since he became president in 2021.

A day after the announcement, the head of the presidential guard, General Abdourahmane Tchiani issued a separate broadcast declaring himself the president of Niger and justifying the coup on the grounds that Bazoum had failed to properly address the several jihadist and terrorist organizations plaguing the country and had squandered millions in international aid meant to secure Niger.

While the “National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland” urged the public to remain calm and refrain from violence, thousands of protesters flooded the streets in support of the coup this weekend, attacking the French embassy in the capital Niamey and waving Russian flags. The Niger coup follows similar incidents in the region – in Guinea and Burkina Faso – in which military leaders with closer sympathies to Russia and its Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) replaced pro-Western governments, triggering dramatic scenes of men cheering on the coups in the streets of their largest cities. France was the former colonial ruler of several countries in the region, including Niger, engendering longstanding negative public sentiment against itself.

ECOWAS held an emergency meeting on Sunday to address the situation in which it suggested that member countries may send troops in to oust the coup leaders and reinstate Bazoum. The group, the message read, “recalled the principle of Zero tolerance for unconstitutional change of government as enshrined in the ECOWAS and African Union Protocols and other instruments.”

The statement demanded that the coup plotters vacate power, release their “hostage” Bazoum, and refrain from any violence, issuing an ultimatum of one week for the group to restore Bazoum to power.

“In the event the Authority’s demands are not met within one week, take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger. Such measures may include the use of force;” the statement read.

Elsewhere in the missive, ECOWAS also announced a series of sanctions against the coup leaders:

Closure of land and air borders between ECOWAS countries and Niger;

2. Institution of ECOWAS no-fly zone on all commercial flights to and from Niger;

3. Suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between ECOWAS Member States and Niger;

4. Freeze of all service transaction including utility services;

5. Freeze of assets of the Republic of Niger in ECOWAS Central Banks;

6. Freeze of assets of the Niger State and the State Enterprises and Parastatals in Commercial Banks;

7. Suspension of Niger from all financial assistance and transactions with all financial institutions, particularly, EBID and BOAD

Mentioned positively in the statement, the United States applauded the message that explicitly threatened military action to oppose the coup.

“The United States welcomes and commends the strong leadership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government to defend constitutional order in Niger,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Sunday, “actions that respect the will of the Nigerien people and align with enshrined ECOWAS and African Union principles of ‘zero tolerance for unconstitutional change.’”

“We join ECOWAS and regional leaders in calling for the immediate release of President Mohamed Bazoum and his family and the restoration of all state functions to the legitimate, democratically-elected government,” Blinken’s statement continued. “The United States further welcomes the dispatch of the special representative of the ECOWAS Chair to Niger and urges all parties to work with ECOWAS for a peaceful and expeditious resolution of the current situation.”

“The United States will remain actively engaged with ECOWAS and West African leaders on next steps to preserve Niger’s hard-earned democracy,” Blinken promised, without mentioning the threat of use of force or clarifying if the United States would consider aiding with such an effort.

Al Jazeera, reporting from the ECOWAS summit on Sunday, described leaders as actively discussing organizing a military coalition to invade Niger and remove Tchiani’s conspirators.

“There is so much talk here [at the summit] of sending a military force to intervene there [in Niger] that has got the military leaders in Niger worried at the moment,” journalist Ahmed Idris with the organization said. “There has been a standby force for years, but it has never been activated in recent times. The [last] time it was activated was in 2017 in the Gambia … when former President Yahya Jammeh tried to stay in power after he lost the election to the current president.”

Radio France Internationale (RFI) spoke to several anonymous diplomats who said that several ECOWAS countries were preparing to organize troop deployments into Niger.

“For our part, some of our troops are already ready not far from the border with Niger for a possible military operation,” an unnamed alleged Nigerian diplomat said.

Another diplomat, reportedly from Ghana, told RFI that the ECOWAS countries feared that another successful coup in a neighboring country would encourage similar behavior in theirs.

“It’s a question of credibility. If we let this coup go, then democracy will be more than in danger [as well as] the ECOWAS, any institution,” RFI quoted the diplomat as saying.

Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane, the spokesman who initially announced the coup on Thursday, responded to the ECOWAS statement with outrage, contending that the countries involved had already decided to invade.
“The objective of this meeting is to agree [on] a plan of aggression against Niger through an imminent military intervention in Niamey in collaboration with African nations, not members of the organisation and certain Western countries,” the colonel said. “We want to once more remind ECOWAS or any other adventurer of our firm determination to defend our homeland.”

Abdramane had anticipated a potential invasion in response to the coup during his initial announcement that the military had ousted Bazoum.

“All external partners are asked not to interfere. Land and air borders are closed until the situation has stabilized,” he suggested, vowing that the new leaders would respect any agreements made with foreign actors under Bazoum.

“Reaffirming our commitment to respecting all the commitments entered into by Niger, we reassure the national and international community that the physical and moral integrity of the authorities will be respected, in accordance with the principle of human rights,” he assured.

The general public first appeared to respond to the broadcast on Thursday tepidly, reportedly going about their daily lives uninterrupted. Chaos gripped Niamey on Sunday, however, when thousands of coup supporters attacked the French embassy and demanded France vacate the country entirely. Videos showed mobs breaking the embassy’s windows and smoke billowing from parts of the city.

The Nigerien military, which issued a statement last week supporting the coup, attacked the violent mobs with tear gas, local reports documented – despite the mobs chanting Tchiani’s name, in addition to the name of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and “Russia!” generally.

No evidence has surfaced at press time that Russia played any role in the coup, nor have the coup leaders announced any coalition with Russia or Wagner. The coups in Mali and Burkina Faso in the last two years, however, have brought leaders into power with overt sympathies for Moscow.

On Sunday evening, the “National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland” (CNSP) issued a statement demanding the public stop vandalizing and destroying sites in the capital, and especially discouraging attacks on foreign embassies.

“The CNSP calls for calm and serenity. We invite you not to give in to escalation and to refrain from any act of vandalism aimed at the destruction of public and or private property,” the statement read. “foreign embassies must not also be the subject of threats, destruction, and attacks.”

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