Roving Periscope: Niger’s junta to prosecute toppled President for ‘high treason’
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Western African landlocked nation Niger’s military regime announced on Sunday to prosecute ousted President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and slammed West African leaders for imposing sanctions on the country.
On Saturday last week, New Delhi advised about 250 Indians stranded in Niger, a former French colony, to leave the troubled country at the earliest by road as airspaces are closed.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed sanctions on Niger in response to the July 26 coup and is considering using force against the army officers who toppled the democratically elected Bazoum, the media reported on Monday.
The West African bloc approved the deployment of a “standby force to restore constitutional order” in Niger at the earliest and was also ready to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
According to a statement read out by Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane on Niger’s national television on Sunday evening, military leaders would prosecute Bazoum “for high treason and undermining the internal and external security of Niger.”
Since the coup, Bazoum, 63, and his family have been held at the President’s official residence in the capital Niamey, as global concern mounted over his conditions in detention.
“After a visit, the doctor raised no problems regarding the state of health of the deposed president and members of his family,” the military said.
It also said sanctions imposed on Niger had made it difficult for people to access medicines, food, and electricity, and were “illegal, inhumane and humiliating.”
The junta’s comments came after religious mediators met with coup leader General Abdourahamane Tiani, who indicated his regime was open to a diplomatic breakthrough.
Tiani promised his doors were open to exploring diplomacy and peace in resolving the matter, said Sheikh Bala Lau, a day after his Nigerian Muslim delegation held talks in the capital Niamey.
The junta leader, a former Bazoum ally, “claimed the coup was well intended” and that the plotters “struck to stave off an imminent threat that would have affected” both Niger and its neighbor Nigeria,” Lau said.
But Tiani said it was “painful” that ECOWAS had issued an ultimatum to restore Bazoum without hearing “their side of the matter.”
The Muslim leaders visited Niamey at the instance of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who heads ECOWAS.
Tinubu has adopted a firm stance against the coup, the sixth to hit an ECOWAS member state since 2020. The bloc has severed financial transactions and electricity supplies and closed borders with landlocked Niger, blocking much-needed imports to one of the world’s poorest countries.
On July 30, it issued a seven-day ultimatum to restore Bazoum or face the potential use of force, but the deadline expired without the new rulers backing down. The bloc scrapped a Saturday crisis meeting on the coup due to be held in Ghana’s capital Accra for “technical reasons.”
Demonstrations in favor of the new military rulers have become a common sight in Niamey. Thousands of people attended concerts on Sunday at the Seyni Kountche Stadium in support of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), floated by the rebels. The crowd, mainly made up of young people, brandished the flags of Niger as well as those of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Russia.
The prospect of a military intervention to reinstate Bazoum has divided ECOWAS members and drawn warnings from foreign powers including Russia and Algeria.
Niger’s neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, also ruled by military governments who seized power in coups, have said intervention would be tantamount to a declaration of war on them.
