France grants full support to ECOWAS deployment of regional military force

France “fully supports” the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) decision to action a standby military force on the borders of Niger, the Foreign Affairs ministry announced late on Thursday (10 August).

“France reiterates its firm condemnation of the attempted putsch underway in Niger and the kidnapping of President Bazoum and his family,” a press release adds.

A military coup in Niger in late July saw army general Abdourahamane Tiani topple and hold captive the democratically-elected president Mohamed Bazoum.

The military take-over has been under heavy fire from the international community, which rejects Tiani’s legitimacy as self-declared leader.

The 15-nation ECOWAS, originally created in 1975 as a regional trading bloc, has been continuously demanding Bazoum’s “immediate release and reinstatement”, threatening to use force. The group set an ultimatum last Sunday (6 August) ahead of a possible military intervention, which so far did not materialise, on hopes that a peaceful solution could still be found.

ECOWAS leaders met for a second ‘extraordinary summit’ on Thursday (10 August) to address the Niger situation, during which they agreed to “give instruction […] to action without delay the ECOWAS standby force” ahead of “its deployment […] for the restoration of a constitutional order in the Republic of Niger”, according to the final conclusions.

The standby force is made up of military, police and civilian components, which can be deployed in efforts to bring back regional peace.

Niger faces more sanctions as junta rebuffs latest diplomatic mission

Niger was slapped with more sanctions on Tuesday (8 August), hours after its new military leaders rejected the latest diplomatic mission aimed at restoring constitutional order following a 26 July coup.

ECOWAS leaders once again condemned the coup, and confirmed economic sanctions against Niger would continue, underlining however their “determination to keep open all possible options to reach a peaceful settlement to this crisis”, so the conclusions read.

Burkina Faso and Mali did not take part in the proceedings. They had warned that they would oppose any military attack on the Nigerien junta.

“The EU reiterates its deep concern for the deteriorating conditions in which [Niger] President Mohamed Bazoum and his family is being detained,” EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said on X (formerly Twitter), calling for their “immediate and unconditional release”.

“I do not think there will be a military intervention,” former French ambassador Gérard Araud told EURACTIV in an interview last week.

“ECOWAS has extremely limited military capacities. France and the US would have to grant logistical support, which would amount to a disguised [Western] intervention, which I do not see happening”, he added.

France is at the centre of the Nigerien crisis, following its decade-long military involvement in the region against jihadist insurgents. The 2020 Mali coup and the 2022 coup in Burkina Faso spoke to France’s general failure to meet its ‘Barkhane’ military operation objectives, Benjamin Petrini, Research Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told EURACTIV last week.

It slowly brewing discontent in local populations – with French President Emmanuel Macron ultimately announcing the military operation phase-out in November 2022.

Niger coup final nail in France’s Sahel military strategy coffin, experts warn

The Niger coup marks the end of a largely-failed French military ‘Barkhane’ operation in the Sahel, broadly due to a lack of resources, and an underlying sense of neocolonialism, according to experts EURACTIV spoke with.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

Read more with Euractiv

Russia launches lunar lander in race to find water on moon

Russia launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years on 11 August in a bid to be the first nation to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole, a region believed to hold coveted pockets of water ice.