Russian mercenary group, Wagner<\/a>, which sent troops to Mali after the military coup there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThese [ECOWAS] forces are not trained for this mission. ECOWAS cannot bully Niger [as it has the backing of] Mali and Burkina Faso, because the only fighting force that has the experience of fighting and training together are those countries in the G5 Sahel,\u201d Hudson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was referring to a regional force set up in 2017, which included troops from Niger, Chad, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Mali, and which received training as well as funds from the West to fight armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL in the Sahel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any conflict would also have severe humanitarian consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Niger, the seventh-largest producer of uranium, ranks 189th among 191 countries in the 2022 United Nations Human Development Index. The sanctions that have already been imposed as well as an eventual war will only thrust more hardship on everyday Nigeriens already battling climate change, poverty and attacks from armed groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeing one of the poorest people in the world, the sanctions [and war] are going to impoverish people further in terms of access to energy, economic engagement, trans-border trade\u2026 the lot is closed against Niger now,\u201d said Oluwole Ojewale, an analyst at the Senegal-based Institute of Security Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWar is a zero-sum game. Even though the other side of ECOWAS is stronger than the side that has been hijacked by military juntas, the fact remains that there will be humanitarian consequences on both ends and it is the poor that will bear the brunt of this,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ojewale noted that more than a million Nigerian refugees \u2013 now living in Niger\u2019s border towns after fleeing attacks from bandits and the Boko Haram armed group \u2013 would also be caught in the crossfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deploying troops to Niger could also prove costly to West African nations, many of which are battling their own security challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEach of ECOWAS\u2019s countries has internal operations they are dealing with already and the consequence is that the militaries will become overstretched in each of the countries if they make military contributions,\u201d Ojewale said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMoney that ought to be channelled towards housing, health and education will be channelled to war \u2013 and at what costs?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that any resistance by the military government in Niger could also provoke a protracted war that could reverberate across the entire region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTchiani\u2019s chances are very low, but you don\u2019t go into another person\u2019s house to attack the person and not receive some bruises,\u201d Ojewale said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can only see the beginning of the war; nobody can predict how it will end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defiance, fear<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As the ECOWAS deadline looms, the coup supporters in Niamey remain defiant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are determined to go through any kind of stress and consequences. The people will accept whatever it will cost, lives or anything, and it is because we are tired of our leaders,\u201d said Issoufou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are now almost five borders open to us \u2013 Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Algeria and Libya, so we can survive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others, however, are fearful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Samaila Mahamadou, who lives in Niger\u2019s second-largest city, Maradi, hopes diplomacy will prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 26-year-old graduate from the University of Ilorin in Nigeria said he does not believe Niger\u2019s military leaders have the capacity to solve problems plaguing his country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 1960, Niger has only had a single transition between civilian governments, in April 2021, when Mahamadou Issoufou handed power to Mohamed Bazoum. This bleak history does not inspire hope in Mahamadou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cConsidering the military coups that have happened before, we did not see any change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInstead, the soldiers come, carry our money and go and leave the country for a civilian, and they will come and do another coup later. Soldiers are not meant to govern but to defend our country against danger. If they are in charge of the country, the country cannot be better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although he does not support the coup, Mahamadou is afraid a military intervention will worsen the conditions for him and his countrymen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 40 percent of Niger\u2019s budget comes from aid. With France and the United States having suspended aid<\/a>, the military will have to look elsewhere for economic sustenance, possibly opening the door for Russia<\/p>\n\n\n\nMahamadou, tense and afraid, said he will be looking for updates constantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf ECOWAS invades Niger, there will be bloodshed, and my country will be destabilised. They should try some diplomatic ways to resolve the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: Al Jazeera<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Archibong Esq. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yeye Issoufou has joined pro-coup demonstrations in Niger three times since members of the presidential guards seized power in the West African country on July 26. Numbering in their hundreds, the crowds have marched through the streets of Niger\u2019s capital, Niamey, singing songs and waving placards hailing the country\u2019s self-declared new leader Abdourahmane Tchiani. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-naija-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-26.png?fit=770%2C513&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12148,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12146\/revisions\/12148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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