ECOWAS Military Leaders to Discuss Potential Niger Intervention

Military leaders from the Economic Community of West African States gather on Thursday and Friday in Ghana to consider the possibility of launching a military operation in retaliation for the coup that took place in Niger last month.

In order to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger, ECOWAS said on Wednesday that it had “started the activation of the ECOWAS Standby Force.”

The regional organisation stated that the discussions in Accra were to finalise the deployment strategies for the standby force.

The discussions come in the wake of an insurgent assault in which, according to the military junta of Niger, 17 of its soldiers were slain.

According to Junta leaders, ousting President Mohamed Bazoum was required to stop violence by Islamic extremists.

In a statement following the attack, ECOWAS urged the junta to reinstate constitutional order in Niger “in order to focus on the security of the country that has become increasingly fragile” since the coup.

The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters all contributed information to this article.