The military chiefs of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will meet on Thursday and Fiday in Accra, Ghana amid tensions over a possible military intervention in Niger, according to Ghana’s army spokesman.
ECOWAS member states had initially mulled a military intervention against those who carried out Niger’s coup, and the bloc’s heads of state had ordered a military force to be readied to restore constitutional order during a special summit, but they said a peaceful resolution of the conflict should continue to be pursued.
ECOWAS defence ministers and military chiefs already met a week after the coup in Niger and drafted deployment plans after they had issued an ultimatum against the putschists.
Of the 15 ECOWAS members, Nigeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Benin and Guinea-Bissau declared their willingness to provide troops in the case of an intervention.
Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea, which were suspended from ECOWAS after their own coups, as is Niger now, want to support the junta in Niger militarily in the event of an intervention.
The coup has plunged the region into a political crisis.
