Updated 04:13 | Published at 4:08 am
The military junta in Niger accuses France and the West African states’ cooperation body Ecowas of planning a “military intervention” in Niger.
This is happening, according to the junta’s spokesperson Amadou Abdramane, by France deploying troops in several countries in West Africa with the aim of being able to intervene in Niger. The accusations came in a televised statement.
The military junta took power in Niger at the end of July. The country’s former colonial power, France, supports ousted president Mohamed Bazoum. It is already tantamount to a hostile intervention, the junta has previously explained.
France has previously had around 1,500 soldiers in the country, where UN troops and the US have also had forces deployed.
Ecowas has threatened to intervene militarily if Mohamed Bazoum is not reinstated as president.
Earlier this week, according to what a source in the French Ministry of Defense told AFP, representatives of the French army and the junta met. The talks are said to apply if French troops or parts of them are to be withdrawn from the country.
The coup in Niger is just one in a row in the region that has meant that more pro-Western leaders, who had the support of the West, have been deposed. The military leaders of Mali and Burkina Faso support the military junta in Niger.