Ouagadagou once again confirms its support for the perpetrators of the coup in Niamey. The Transitional Legislative Assembly in Burkina Faso voted on Tuesday a law authorizing the sending for “three renewable months” of a military contingent to neighboring Niger, threatened with armed intervention by West African countries since a putsch.
The law, proposed by the transitional government, was unanimously approved by the 71 members of the Assembly. It “provides a legal framework for the deployment of a military contingent from Burkina Faso to Niger, whose mission is to provide military assistance to the Republic of Niger in the event of aggression or destabilization by an external army, but also to fight against terrorism,” declared Burkina Faso Minister of Defense, Colonel-Major Kassoum Coulibaly.
The alliance of three military regimes
The adoption of the law allows Burkina Faso to “have support points” in Niger “to fight against terrorist groups who often take refuge there after having committed attacks on our territory”, justified Kassoum Coulibaly.
Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali share the so-called “three borders” zone, where jihadist groups very frequently carry out attacks. These three countries, led by military regimes, signed a charter on Saturday in Bamako establishing an alliance of “collective defense and mutual assistance”, creating the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Niger, where a coup d’état overthrew elected president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, is threatened with military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which wants the restoration of constitutional order. At the end of August, Niger’s new strongman, General Abdourahamane Tiani, signed a decree authorizing the armed forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Nigerien soil “in the event of aggression or destabilization by an external army.”