The military junta in Niger Republic has recalled the country’s Ambassador to Ivory Coast after remarks by Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara.
On his return from an ECOWAS Summit in Abuja last week Thursday, Ouattara said the heads of state of the regional bloc had agreed a military operation should “start as soon as possible”
Ouattara said he had instructed the Chief of Staff of the Ivorian army “to start mobilizing his troops for their participation in this ECOWAS operation” and that Ivory Coast is ready to provide a battalion of 850 to 1,100 troops alongside Nigeria and Benin.
He said: “The putschists can decide to leave tomorrow morning, and there will be no military intervention; it all depends on them.
“We are determined to reinstate President (Mohamed) Bazoum.”
In a statement read on Television on Monday, the spokesman of the junta, Col. Amadou Abdramane, said Ouattara’s recent comments indicated his “eagerness” to send troops to Niger for military intervention.
Abdramane said President Ouattara’s wish was to “see this illegal and senseless aggression against Niger enforced.”
The spokesman of the military junta claimed that the haste by ECOWAS attests to the manipulation orchestrated by certain outside powers.
He said: “That is why the (leaders) and the government of Niger express their total rejection of the remarks made” by Ouattara “which go beyond the common position of the sub-regional organisation ECOWAS… and decide to recall the Niger ambassador to Abidjan for consultation.”
Recall that ECOWAS leaders reaffirmed their preference for a diplomatic route to restore President Mohamed Bazoum while ordering the deployment of a “standby force” without giving details of any possible West African military intervention.
