The coup leaders claim that the Ivorian president’s support for armed conflict against Niamey demonstrates his unrelenting intention to destabilise the nation.
The country’s ambassador to the Ivory Coast has been called back by Niger’s new military administration due to “threatening remarks” made by Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, who they claim “has advocated” violent conflict to restore Niamey’s pre-coup leadership.
The architects of the coup claimed in a statement on Monday that Ouattara’s “eagerness” to dispatch troops to Niger for a military intervention to release imprisoned President Mohamed Bazoum demonstrates a “relentless desire to destroy the country and its people.”
Last week, the Ivorian president referred to the July 26 coup in Niger and the incarceration of Bazoum as “terrorist” acts and declared that his nation would join Nigeria and Benin in sending troops to support an ECOWAS operation, which is led by 15 countries in the region.
Following a session of the ECOWAS in Nigeria, where the leaders decided to form a standby force for potential action in neighbouring Niger, Ouattara made the statement last week.
He indicated his country’s preparedness to provide between 850 and 1,100 troops to an ECOWAS mission when he told reporters in Abuja that a military action to restore constitutional order in Niamey should start “as soon as possible.”
Amadou Abdramane, a spokesman for Niger’s new military rulers, “totally” criticised Ouattara’s comments on Monday, claiming that his desire to “carry out this aggression” against Niger is “illegal in all respects, and senseless.”
Abdramane made a suggestion that interference from outside the ECOWAS region was taking place: “[This] reflects an injunction addressed to him and to some of his ECOWAS peers with the aim of preserving interests that no longer correspond to those of Niger today.”
At a summit last Thursday, West African leaders reaffirmed their preference for a diplomatic resolution but noted that military action remained a possibility due to the coup leaders’ “defiant” stance.
The leaders of the Nigerian military said on Sunday that they would accuse ousted President Bazoum of “high treason” because of his contacts with foreign governments and international organisations.
The action was denounced by ECOWAS leaders on Monday as yet another act of provocation that “contradicts the reported willingness of the military authorities… [to] restore constitutional order through peaceful means.”
