W. Africa defense chiefs prepare for possible mission

NIAMEY, Niger — West African military chiefs held a second day of talks in Ghana on Friday, preparing for a possible armed intervention in Niger after a coup ousted president Mohamed Bazoum.

The Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, has agreed to activate a "standby force" as a last resort to restore democracy in Niger after generals toppled and detained Bazoum last month.

ECOWAS defense chiefs were meeting in the Ghanaian capital Accra to fine tune details of the potential military operation to restore Bazoum if ongoing negotiations with coup leaders fail.

"Let no one be in doubt that if everything else fails the valiant forces of West Africa, both the military and the civilian components, are ready to answer to the call of duty," Abdel-Fatau Musah, an ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs and security, told the meeting on Thursday.

"Meanwhile, we are still giving diplomacy a chance and the ball is in the court of the junta."

The two-day Accra meeting was scheduled to conclude on Friday when the defense chiefs are expected to announce any next steps at a closing ceremony.

Details of the Niger operation have not been released and analysts say any intervention would be politically and militarily risky.

Open to talks

Niger's coup leaders have warned against any military strikes and defiantly threatened to charge Bazoum with treason. But they have also said they are open to talks.

Russia and the United States have urged a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

ECOWAS has already applied trade and financial sanctions on Niger while France, Germany and the US have suspended aid programs.

"ECOWAS has few good options… particularly as the (junta) seems unwilling for the moment to cede to outside pressure," said Andrew Lebovich, a research fellow with the Clingendael Institute, a think tank.

"An intervention could backfire and damage the organization in numerous ways, while a failure to extract major concessions from the (junta) could weaken the organization politically at an already fragile time," he said.

The top security body of the African Union met on Monday to consider whether it would support military intervention but has yet to make public its decision.

The AU's Peace and Security Council could overrule a military intervention if it felt that wider stability on the continent was threatened by it. If it rejects the use of force, there are few grounds under which ECOWAS could claim legal justification, said Lebovich.

But on Thursday, Musah told reporters that the bloc was working with the United Nations on Niger's situation and didn't "need any approval from the Security Council to find a solution to the crisis".

On Friday, the United Nations slammed the generals who have seized power in Niger on "a whim" and plunged the country further into misery, demanding that constitutional order be immediately restored.

"The very notion of freedoms in Niger is at stake," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

"Generals cannot take it upon themselves to defy — at a whim — the will of the people," he said. "Rule-by-gun has no place in today's world."

Agencies Via Xinhua