Burkina Faso, Mali send combat jets to defend Niger as ECOWAS activates ‘Standby Force to restore constitutional order’; Military ruler warns against attack

West African military chiefs held a second day of talks in Ghana on Friday, preparing for a possible armed intervention in Niger after a coup there ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has agreed to activate a “standby force” as a last resort to restore democracy in Niger after generals toppled and detained Bazoum last month.

ECOWAS defence chiefs were meeting in the Ghanaian capital Accra to fine tune details of the potential military operation to restore Bazoum if ongoing negotiations with coup leaders fail.

“Let no one be in doubt that if everything else fails the valiant forces of West Africa, both the military and the civilian components, are ready to answer to the call of duty,” Abdel-Fatau Musah, an ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs and security, told the meeting on Thursday.

“Meanwhile, we are still giving diplomacy a chance and the ball is in the court of the junta.”

Michel had renewed the European Union’s “full support and backing of ECOWAS’ decisions, as well as firm condemnation of the unacceptable coup de force in Niger”.

ECOWAS leaders say they have to act after Niger became the fourth West Africa nation since 2020 to suffer a coup, following Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

The Sahel region is struggling with growing jihadist insurgencies linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State and frustration over the violence has in part prompted the military takeovers.

ECOWAS has already applied trade and financial sanctions on Niger while France, Germany and the United States have suspended aid programmes.

Germany’s foreign ministry has also said it wants the EU to impose sanctions on the coup leaders, saying that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had held talks with her French and US counterparts.

Burkina Faso and Mali have sent warplanes to Niger Republic in response to a potential armed intervention by the Economic Community of West Africa to restore democracy there.

The military-ruled governments in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso have also said an intervention in Niger would be seen as a declaration of war against them.

On Friday, a Niger television station stated that Mali and Burkina Faso were working together to support Niger and that jets had been sent within Niger’s borders.

It stated that “Mali and Burkina Faso turned their commitments into concrete action by deploying warplanes to respond to any attack on Niger,” saying that the aircraft were Super Tucano fighter jets.

President Mohamed Bazoum was detained on June 26 and the elected government of Niger, a significant uranium producer and partner of the West in the struggle against an Islamist insurgency, was overthrown.

On July 30, ECOWAS, headed by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, resolved to impose sanctions on the Nigerian military members and ordered the military junta one week to reinstate Bazoum as president.

On August 10, after the one-week deadline had passed, West African leaders got together and decided to create a “standby force” to bring back elected Bazoum.

The coup plotters had called ECOWAS’s bluff and pledged to thwart outside involvement.

The ECOWAS Defence Chiefs were then instructed to mobilise the region’s army for action to restore civil rule in Niger, warning that it would invade the country on the “D-Day.”

“If an attack were to be undertaken against us, it will not be the walk in the park some people seem to think.”

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.”

He also said: “ECOWAS is getting ready to attack Niger by setting up an occupying army in collaboration with a foreign army,” without saying which country he meant.

Tiani’s warning came after a delegation from West African bloc ECOWAS arrived in the country for a final diplomatic push before deciding whether to take military action against the country’s new military rulers.

They met ousted president Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held with his family at the president’s official residence since officers from his personal guard deposed him and seized power on July 26.

In his 12-minute speech, Tiania denounced what he called the “illegal” and “inhuman” sanctions levied by ECOWAS against Niger since the military seized power.

He also announced a 30-day period of “national dialogue” to draw up “concrete proposals” to lay the foundations of “a new constitutional life”.