West African nations imposed sanctions and threatened force on Sunday if Niger’s coup leaders fail to reinstate ousted President Mohammed Bazoum within a week, while supporters of the junta attacked the French embassy in Niamey.
ECOWAS and the eight-member West African Economic and Monetary Union said that with immediate effect borders with Niger would be closed, commercial flights banned, financial transactions halted, national assets frozen and aid ended.
In an emergency meeting, the leaders of the economic community of West African countries discussed last week’s coup in Niger and called for the restoration of the country’s constitution and warned that otherwise, they will take retaliatory measures.
In addition to severe economic sanctions, these countries have also threatened the coup plotters with military intervention.
Omar Turay, the Economic Community of West African States chairman said: “In this event, the authorities’ demands are not met within one week, take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the republic of Niger. Such measures may include the use of force.
The military coup in Niger, which began unfolding on Wednesday, has been widely condemned by neighbours and international partners including the United States, the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and former colonial power France.
They have all refused to recognise the new leaders led by General Abdourahamane Tiani.
Niger has been a key ally in Western campaigns against insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State in the Sahel, and there are concerns that the coup could open the door to greater Russian influence there. Thousands of French troops were forced to withdraw from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso following coups there.
Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, receiving close to $2 billion a year in official development assistance, according to the World Bank.
The United States, France, Italy and Germany have troops there on military training and missions to fight Islamist insurgents. Niger is also the world’s seventh-biggest producer of uranium, the radioactive metal widely used for nuclear energy and in nuclear weapons, as well as for treating cancer.
Ahead of the summit, Niger’s junta had warned that ECOWAS was considering an imminent military intervention in collaboration with other African and some Western nations.
“We want to once more remind ECOWAS or any other adventurer, of our firm determination to defend our homeland,” junta spokesperson Colonel Amadou Abdramane said.
At the same time, Amadou Abdramane, the spokesman of the military government (coup) of Niger, said: “We want to show once again to the economic community of West African countries or any other adventurer, our determination to defend our homeland.”
Niger’s prime minister under Bazoum’s government, Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou, said ECOWAS sanctions would be disastrous because the country relies heavily on international partners to cover its budgetary needs.
“I know the fragility of Niger, I know the economic and financial context of Niger having been the finance minister and now prime minister,” Mahamadou, who was abroad when the coup occurred, told France24 television from Paris.
“This is a country that will not be able to resist these kinds of sanctions. It will be catastrophic.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed ECOWAS’s action on Sunday.
“We join ECOWAS and regional leaders in calling for the immediate release of President Mohamed Bazoum and his family and the restoration of all state functions to the legitimate, democratically-elected government,” said Blinken in a statement.
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