The military who took power in Niger closed the country’s airspace “in the face of the threat of armed intervention”, the West African ultimatum demanding the reinstatement of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum having expired on Monday August 7, 2023.
“Faced with the threat of intervention which is becoming clearer from neighboring countries, Niger’s airspace is closed […] until further notice”, indicates Sunday evening a press release from the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CNSP, which took power).
The end of the ultimatum
This press release was published shortly before the expiration, Monday at 00:00 Niamey time (Sunday 23:00 GMT), of the ultimatum sent on July 30 by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to the military to restore President Bazoum to his duties, on pain of armed intervention. The CNSP specifies that “any attempt to violate the airspace” will lead to “an energetic and instantaneous response”.
He also claims that a “pre-deployment for the preparation of the intervention has been made in two Central African countries”, without specifying which ones. “Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent,” he adds.
Borders still open
Niger’s land and air borders with five countries (Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali, Chad), closed during the July 26 coup, were reopened on August 2.
A gathering of 30,000 supporters
On Sunday afternoon, some 30,000 coup supporters, many waving flags of Niger, Burkina Faso and Russia, staged a show of force at Niger’s biggest stadium in Niamey. “Today is the day of our true independence!” shouted a young man, the crowd around him shouting “Down with France, down with ECOWAS!”
Members of the CNSP arrived triumphantly at the stadium in a convoy of pick-ups, cheered and surrounded by a feverish crowd, AFP journalists noted.
General Mohamed Toumba, number three in the CNSP, took the floor to denounce those “who lurk in the shadows” and who “are plotting subversion” against “Niger’s march forward”. “We are aware of their Machiavellian plan,” he said.
Support from Mali and Burkina Faso for the junta
The coup was condemned by all of Niger’s Western and African partners, but the Niger military received support from their counterparts in Mali and Burkina Faso – who also came to power through coups in 2020 and 2022 and they too face jihadist violence – who claim that an intervention in Niger would be a “declaration of war” on their two countries.
Concerns in Nigeria and Algeria
The prospect of armed intervention arouses concern and criticism. On Saturday, senators from Nigeria, a heavyweight in ECOWAS with its 215 million inhabitants and which shares a 1,500 km border with Niger, called on President Bola Tinubu to “strengthen the political and diplomatic option”. Algeria, another neighbor of Niger and a major player in the Sahel, has also expressed reservations. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said on Saturday that an intervention would be “a direct threat” to his country. “There will be no solution without us”, he added, fearing that “the whole Sahel will be set ablaze”.
“We must prevent the catastrophic scenario of a war”, alerted for its part a group of researchers, specialists in the Sahel, in a column published on Saturday in the French daily Release.
“One more war in the Sahel will have only one winner: the jihadist movements which for years have been building their territorial expansion on the bankruptcy of states”, they write.