According to Algiers, the strategy will enable a peaceful resolution of the crisis in the best interests of all parties.
According to a Monday statement from the Algerian Foreign Ministry, the military administration of Niger has accepted Algeria’s offer to mediate the country’s political crisis, which was brought on by the July coup that ousted President Mohammed Bazoum.
This event “reinforces the option of a political solution to this crisis and opens the way to the meeting of the conditions which will allow it to be overcome peacefully in the interest of Niger and the entire region,” the ministry said in a statement.
When the leaders of the coup in Niamey refused to restore Bazoum, the West African regional organisation ECOWAS threatened to use military force against them. Algiers has consistently resisted this threat.
After purportedly rejecting a request from France to fly across its airspace for an armed operation in Niamey, the neighbouring country of North Africa announced in August a six-month transitional plan to restore constitutional and democratic order in Niger.
General Abdourahmane Tchiani, the military ruler of Nigerien, had proposed that the West African nation revert to civilian administration within three years; ECOWAS had referred to this timeframe as a “provocation.” Algiers took the initiative in reaction.
The formation of political agreements with the acceptance of all parties involved in the crisis is one of the six points of the mediation project, according to Algeria’s foreign minister Ahmed Attaf, who presented the framework in late August.
Weeks after President Abdelmadjid Tebboune submitted the proposal, the Algerian government said on Monday that it has obtained an approved notification of the settlement plan from the Niger’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to the Algerian Foreign Ministry, President Tebboune had directed Attaf “to go to Niamey as soon as possible” to “initiate preparatory discussions on the implementation of the Algerian initiative with all stakeholders.”
