IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Niger’s junta-appointed prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, paid an unannounced visit to Chad on Tuesday.
Zeine’s unannounced visit came hours after sources in the region said military chiefs from the regional bloc ECOWAS would meet in Ghana on Thursday, and Friday to discuss possible intervention in Niger.
The meeting — originally scheduled for last Saturday but then postponed — flows from an ECOWAS summit last week which approved deployment of a “standby force to restore constitutional order” in Niger.
Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, a civilian appointed by the military rulers who ousted Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, arrived in Chad for a “working visit,” the Chadian government said on Facebook.
In a statement issued after meeting Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, Zeine said he had brought a message of “good neighbourliness and good fraternity” from the head of Niger’s regime.
“We are in a process of transition, we discussed the ins and outs and reiterated our availability to remain open and talk with all parties, but insist on our country’s independence,” he said.
Deby, a key player in the unstable Sahel, had flown to the Nigerien capital Niamey four days after the coup.
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Bazoum’s election in 2021 was a landmark in Niger’s history, ushering in the country’s first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.
His ousting unleashed a shock wave around West Africa, where Mali and Burkina Faso — likewise battered by a jihadist insurgency — have also suffered military takeovers.
ECOWAS — the Economic Community of West African States — applied a tough roster of trade and financial sanctions, while France, Germany and the United States suspended their aid programmes.
The regional bloc gave the new regime a one-week ultimatum on July 30 to restore Bazoum or face the potential use of force, but the deadline expired without action.
Niger’s military regime has sent mixed signals since the crisis erupted.
At the weekend, the coup leaders said they were open to a diplomatic push after their chief, General Abdourahamane Tiani, met with Nigerian religious mediators.
Those talks came after the ECOWAS military meeting in Ghana was postponed for “technical reasons”.
But on Sunday night, Niger’s rulers declared they had gathered sufficient evidence to prosecute Bazoum for “high treason and undermining internal and external security”.
The legal threat was angrily condemned by ECOWAS, which lashed it as a contradiction of the regime’s “reported willingness” to explore peaceful means. Washington said it was “incredibly dismayed”.
The row overshadowed talks under African Union (AU) auspices that began on Monday in Addis Ababa, bringing together representatives from the regime and ECOWAS.