A day after an ultimatum from the West African bloc ECOWAS was ignored, a second-ranking US diplomat met Niger’s military leaders on Monday to press for a coup reversal.
It was gathered that there was no headway as both parties failed to agree on the way forward.
Victoria Nuland, a veteran envoy and acting deputy secretary of state, said she met for more than two hours with military chiefs who ousted democratically elected Western ally Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July.
Nuland’s trip, conducted in secrecy until she left, came after the expiration of a deadline set by ECOWAS to reinstate Bazoum by midnight (2300 GMT) on Sunday or risk military intervention.
The 15-nation bloc is reconvening for its own diplomatic push on the crisis with a summit Thursday in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
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A source close to ECOWAS said an immediate military intervention to restore Bazoum was not envisaged at this stage, adding that the path to dialogue still appeared open.
Speaking to reporters before her departure, Nuland described her talks as “extremely frank and at times quite difficult”.
She said she offered the coup leaders “a number of options” to exit the crisis and restore the relationship with the United States, which like other Western nations has suspended aid.
“I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer,” she said.
She added that the coup leaders did not respond to her requests to meet Niger’s self-proclaimed new leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, or the detained elected President, Mohamed Bazoum, although US officials have been in touch with Bazoum by telephone.
Nuland said she met Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, who has been named the new Military Chief of Staff and who has worked closely in the past with the United States, which along with former colonial power France, has based anti-jihadist operations in the Sahel out of Niger.
Nuland said she warned Niger against following neighbouring Mali in bringing in Russia’s Wagner mercenaries.
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“The people who have taken this action here understand very well the risks to their sovereignty when Wagner is invited in,” said Nuland, who is known for her hawkish stance on Russia.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed on Monday the need for the international community to find a diplomatic route out of the coup.
“Diplomacy is certainly the preferred way of resolving this situation,” he told French Radio RFI.
“It is ECOWAS’ current approach. It is our approach.”
Niger’s coup is the latest of several in Africa’s Sahel belt since 2020.
Niger has been critical to Western strategies to combat jihadist insurgencies that have plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.
AFP