Col. Amadou Abdramane, spokesman for Niger’s junta, learn from the assertion in a televised handle. ECOWAS, he stated, had turned away from “the beliefs of its founding fathers” and did not help the three nations, that are wracked by Islamist insurgencies, of their “existential struggle in opposition to terrorism and insecurity.”
The three nations fashioned a mutual protection pact in September. However Sunday’s announcement marked an escalation in tensions that soared final yr following a navy coup in Niger — the final of the three nations to lose their democratic governments.
The primary was Mali, the place mutinous troopers seized energy in 2020 and once more in 2021, when a navy officer ousted the unique coup chief. Neighboring Burkina Faso adopted an identical sample, with two navy coups in 2022.
The July coup in Niger — a key safety accomplice of the West — got here as a shock to many within the area and internationally and was met with a pointy rebuke by ECOWAS, which imposed sanctions and later threatened to invade to revive the elected president.
The assertion Sunday criticized ECOWAS for the sanctions, which the juntas referred to as “illegitimate, inhumane and irresponsible.” The commerce restrictions, the assertion stated, had “additional weakened populations already bruised by years of violence.”
