A team from ECOWAS left Niger without meeting the leader of the junta which seized power in a coup, a delegation member said on Friday.
The ECOWAS delegation arrived in the capital Niamey on Thursday “but did not spend the night as scheduled, nor meet with coup leader Tchiani or deposed President Bazoum,” the team member said.
According to a report on Friday by Radio France International, the “delegation from the ECOWAS arrived in Niamey, with the aim of establishing a dialogue with the junta in order to obtain the return to constitutional order. The first contacts on site were positive.
“But at the end of the evening, the CNSP spoke through the voice of Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane, the same who spoke on July 26, when the soldiers announced that they had overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum.”
The delegation was led by former Nigerian military Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar and was initially due to meet Tchiani to present ECOWAS’ demands, according to the Nigerian presidency.
Niger’s junta, meanwhile, warned it would meet force with force.
“Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc’s) members,” one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television late Thursday.
Similarly, the Niger military late on Thursday announced that it has terminated the duties of its ambassadors in four countries.
The countries are Nigeria, France, the United States and Togo.
In a statement read on national television on Thursday by Tchiani, the junta said it has “put an end” to the function of the extraordinary ambassadors and plenipotentiaries of the Republic of Niger in four countries.
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