US envoy meets Niger coup leaders but sees no headway

NIAMEY, Niger – The second-highest ranking US diplomat met Niger’s military leaders on Monday to

press them to reverse a coup

but she reported no headway a day after the junta ignored an ultimatum from a West African bloc.

Ms Victoria Nuland, a veteran envoy who is the acting deputy secretary of state, said she met for more than two hours chiefs of the military who on July 26 ousted Mr Mohamed Bazoum, a democratically elected Western ally.

She described the talks as “extremely frank and at times quite difficult” but said she offered “a number of options” to exit the crisis and restore the relationship with the US, which, like other Western nations, has suspended aid over the coup.

“This was a first conversation in which the United States was offering its good offices if there is a desire on the part of the people who are responsible for this to return to the constitutional order,” she told reporters by telephone before flying out.

“I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer.”

She said the junta did not respond to her requests to meet Niger’s self-proclaimed new leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, or the detained elected president, Mr Bazoum, although US officials have been in touch with Mr Bazoum by telephone.

Ms Nuland said she met Brigadier-General Moussa Salaou Barmou, who has been named the new military chief of staff and who has worked closely in the past with the US, which, along with former colonial power France, has based anti-terrorism operations in the Sahel out of Niger.

Ms Nuland said she warned Niger against following neighbouring Mali in bringing in

Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries.

“The people who have taken this action here understand very well the risks to their sovereignty when Wagner is invited in,” said Ms Nuland, who is known for her hawkish stance on Russia.

Regional summit

Ms Nuland’s trip, conducted in secrecy until she left, came after the junta ignored a deadline set by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), a regional bloc, to reinstate Mr Bazoum by midnight on Sunday or risk military intervention.

The 15-nation bloc said it would hold a summit on the crisis on Thursday in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

A source close to Ecowas said an immediate military intervention to restore Mr Bazoum was not being envisaged at this stage.

Mali, which neighbours Niger, said it and Burkina Faso – which have both been suspended from Ecowas over their own military coups – were sending a joint official delegation to Niamey to show “solidarity (with) the people of Niger”.

They have said military intervention would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also cautioned against a military solution, which President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said would be “a direct threat” to his North African country.

Senators in regional heavyweight Nigeria urged everyone to focus on the “political and diplomatic option”.

More envoys coming

Just before the ultimatum expired on Sunday, Niger’s military rulers closed the Sahel country’s airspace and warned that any attempt to enter it would meet with an “energetic and immediate response”.

They said there had been a “pre-deployment in preparation for intervention” made by two Central African countries, without naming them.

“Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent,” they warned.

But Niger’s military rulers also urged an Ecowas delegation to return for talks, Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou told French broadcaster TV5 Monde on Monday, after an abortive first attempt.

He revealed in his interview that Mr Bazoum – who is being held with his wife and son – was enduring deteriorating conditions.

The junta has asked the Ecowas delegation to return and its members “will be in Niamey probably today (Monday) or tomorrow”, Mr Mahamadou said in the interview.

An Ecowas delegation had arrived in the capital Niamey last Thursday but did not stay overnight as scheduled. It did not meet either Mr Bazoum or Gen Tiani.

The United Nations Secretary-General’s representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Dr Leonardo Santos Simao, was also in Abuja for talks on the crisis.

France, with which Niger’s new rulers have broken military ties, said it would “firmly” back whatever course of action Ecowas took after the deadline expired.

The Niger coup was the latest of several to plague Africa’s Sahel belt since 2020.

Niger has been critical to Western strategies to combat extremist insurgencies that have plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the US stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops respectively in the country. AFP