A few hours after the ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff concluded plans for a military alternative, the Niger coup leaders have now opened doors to negotiate.
General Abdulsalami Salami was back in Niger on Saturday morning [August 19] under the auspices of ECOWAS in the diplomatic move.
ECOWAS on Friday stated that troops across the region are ready to enter Niger and restore democratic rule.
After a two-day meeting of the Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff, the West African sub-regional bloc said there was political will among member states who were also ready to contribute their own troops and equipment for the mission to restore democratic rule in Niger, where the presidential guard, a detachment of the military, toppled the President, Mohamed Bazoum, on July 26, this year.
“We are not going to Niger to wage war, rather to restore constitutional order,” the Commissioner in charge of Political Affairs, Peace and Security at the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Abdel-Fatau Musah, said at a press conference at Burma Camp on Friday.
He stressed that member states across the region had committed resources and equipment needed to undertake the mission and “we are ready to go anytime the Heads of State give the order”.
Dr Musah further said the Heads of State of the member states were satisfied with the reports presented by the Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff and the troops across the region were ready to respond to the call to duty.
Source: graphic.com.gh
