By Ayo Yusuf
As the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, prepares to deploy troops to Niger to restore democratic governance, the ruling junta has threatened to kill the country’s ousted President, Mohamed Bazoum, at the first sign of an attack.
Top United States diplomats privy to the plot told the Associated Press that Mr. Bazoum’s life has never been in greater danger as the coupists vow he would be eliminated at the first sign of invasion by ECOWAS troops.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, a western military official said representatives of the junta told the US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland of the threat to Bazoum during her visit to the country on Monday.
Meanwhile, the African Union on Friday expressed “deep concern” at the reported poor conditions of Bazoum’s detention, calling his treatment at the hands of coup leaders “unacceptable”.
“Such treatment of a democratically elected president through a regular electoral process is unacceptable,” AU Commission head Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a statement, joining a chorus of concern about 63-year-old Bazoum, who was overthrown by military chiefs last month.
“Concordant sources attest to a worrying deterioration” of conditions, Faki said.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have also spoken out about the worsening conditions that Bazoum and his family are reportedly living under.
CNN reported Wednesday that Bazoum was being kept in isolation and forced to eat plain rice and pasta, with no access to medicines.
Faki also expressed his “strong support” for the decisions adopted by the Economic Community of West African States, which on Thursday approved the deployment of a standby force to restore constitutional order in Niger.
An attempt this week to send a joint team of ECOWAS, UN, and AU representatives to Niger’s capital Niamey to jaw-jaw with them was rejected by the coup leaders.
The threat to kill Bazoum comes on the heels of the resolution of the ECOWAS to deploy troops in Niger following the collapse of diplomatic efforts and despite the sanctions imposed on them and their collaborators by the regional body.
Multiple US officials who confirmed the threat on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Bazoum, who was deposed on July 26, and has since being held hostage at his residence faces imminent danger.
It would be recalled that rising from a meeting of the ECOWAS Heads of States and Government in Abuja on Thursday, the President of ECOWAS, Omar Touray, said the bloc had directed the deployment of a “standby force” to restore democracy in Niger after the coup.
Mr. Touray gave no details about the make-up, location and proposed date of deployment for the military intervention force but said financing had been discussed and “appropriate measures have been taken.”
Reading the resolutions of the ECOWAS on the military junta in Niger at the end of the commission’s extra-ordinary summit, he also called on the African Union, partner countries and institutions to support the decision taken by the sub-regional body.
ECOWAS said all efforts made to hold dialogues with the military junta had been defiantly rejected by the coup leaders as they condemned the continuous detention of Bazoum and his family members.
Before taking the decision, the authority explained that it considered the memorandum presented by the President of the ECOWAS Commission on the current situation in the Republic of Niger, ECOWAS engagement since the last extraordinary summit; the reports of the envoys sent to Niger and various other places and recommendations of the ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff.
It also extensively discussed the latest development in Niger since the last extra-ordinary summit was held on July 30, noting that all diplomatic efforts made by ECOWAS in resolving the crisis had been defiantly repelled by the military leadership, including the one-week ultimatum given for the restoration of constitutional order in Niger.
