Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, said the meeting will be a defining moment to look at solutions to restore the constitutional government in Niger
The bloc is split, however, with suspended member states Mali and Burkina Faso, both ruled by army governments that seized power in coups in the past two years, siding with the Niger junta and vowing to defend it.
Hours before the summit in Abuja, they named a new government in an apparent move to entrench their position and present themselves as a legitimate government for Niger after the July 26 coup. Wagner's chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has welcomed the Niger coup and said his forces were available to restore order.
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