Facts: Ecowas
Ecowas (Economic Community of West African States) is an economic community for 15 countries in West Africa.
The organization was established in 1975.
Member countries: Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria and Togo.
Eight of them are French-speaking, five of the countries are English-speaking and in two of the countries Portuguese is spoken.
The West African Cooperation Organization Ecowas has threatened military intervention following the July 26 coup in which a junta took power after toppling the popularly elected government. The deadline for an intervention expired earlier this week. But no military action has been taken and Niger’s military remains defiantly in power.
After initially saying on Thursday that they would seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis, they reversed themselves late on Thursday evening.
— From today’s meeting, the (individual countries’) chiefs of staff have with them that there is an agreement to start a (military) operation as soon as possible, says Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara when he left the Ecowas meeting in Nigeria’s capital Abuja late in the evening.
— We are firmly convinced to reinstate President (Mohamed) Bazoum, he continued and stated that Ivory Coast is ready to contribute a force of at least 850 soldiers.
Compare with previous coups
Nigeria and Benin must also be ready to contribute forces and other countries are said to be on the way to approving their participation.
Alassane Ouattara compares the coup in Niger with situations in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.
“Ecowas cannot accept what is happening now,” he says.
Ouattara’s words stand in stark contrast to earlier statements by the meeting’s host, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, about seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
French support
France’s foreign ministry said in a statement after the meeting that the country “gives its full support to all the conclusions of the West African leaders who decided on Thursday to deploy a contingency force to reinstate Niger President Mohamed Bazoum”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also expressed his support for Ecowa’s efforts in Niger on Thursday, without explicitly endorsing the call for military intervention.
“Ecowas, an organization that brings together West African countries, is playing a key role in making clear the need to restore constitutional order, and we fully support Ecowas’ leadership and work on this,” Blinken said in a statement.
The president still locked up
Negotiations with the coup plotters have so far proved difficult. On Tuesday, plans to send a joint delegation from Ecowas, the United Nations and the African Union were rejected by the junta.
However, underground information claims that Niger’s military junta may be prepared for talks.
At the same time, the UN expresses concern about the condition of the 63-year-old Nigerian president Mohamed Bazoum, who has been detained since the coup.
Secretary-General António Guterres condemned in a statement the “deplorable living conditions in which President Bazoum and his family are reported to be kept”.