Did you miss the latest events on the conflict in Niger? 20 minutes takes stock for you every evening at 8 p.m. Who did what ? Who said what? Where are we ? The answer below.
The fact of the day
“Down with France, down with ECOWAS. Thousands of demonstrators chanted these slogans on Friday near the military base in Niamey, to protest against the ECOWAS decision to use force to restore order.
“We are going to make the French leave! ECOWAS is not independent, it is a manipulation of France, there is an external influence”, exclaimed Aziz Rabeh Ali, member of a student union supporting the military regime.
Since taking power, the military have taken France – a former colonial power – as their main target, accusing it of being behind the scenes at the origin of ECOWAS’ decision to deploy its “force in waiting” to restore constitutional order.
sentence of the day
President Bazoum and his family are, according to the latest information, deprived of food, electricity and health care for several days (…). There is no justification for such treatment.
These are the words of the head of diplomacy of the European Union. Josep Borrell spoke this Friday, more than two weeks after the coup that overthrew Mohamed Bazoum. Fears are growing about the conditions of detention and the fate reserved for the president.
According to the NGO Human Rights Watch who spoke to Bazoum, the latter described the treatment of his family as “inhuman and cruel”, saying he had no electricity since August 2, nor any human contact for a week. .
The number of the day
From 850 to 1,100. This is the number of men who should constitute the “battalion” that Côte d’Ivoire will “provide”, alongside Nigeria and Benin in particular, before “other countries” join them. These men will be part of the “standby force” to restore constitutional order in Niger and whose deployment has been ordered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOWAS, which nevertheless still hopes to reach a peaceful resolution to the crisis, has not specified any timetable, nor the number or origin of the other soldiers composing it.
The trend
The use of force will cause “a strong destabilization” of Niger estimated the Kremlin, which once again spoke out against any armed intervention. “We believe that a military route to resolving the crisis in Niger could lead to a protracted confrontation in this African country as well as to a strong destabilization of the situation in the entire Sahara and Sahel region,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Ignoring this condemnation, ECOWAS chiefs of staff will meet in Ghana on Saturday, two days after the decision to use force. After the meeting, the Chiefs of Staff will brief ECOWAS leaders on “best options” as to their decision to activate and deploy the “standby force”, according to these regional military sources.