Nigerian Delegation Meets With Niger's Junta As Military Intervention Looms: Niger
Coup leader General Abdourahamane Tchiani and junta-appointed Prime Minister Ali Maham Lamine Zeine both met with the delegation of Muslim religious leaders led by Sheikh Abdullahi Bala Lau, leader of the Izala Salafist movement in Nigeria, according to Nigerien media.
"The clerics are in Niamey to explain to the junta leaders that Nigeria is not fighting Niger and that the decisions taken on Niger are not Nigeria's but those of ECOWAS as a regional bloc," the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. "The military option seriously envisaged by ECOWAS is not a war against Niger and its people but a police operation against hostage takers and their accomplices," Hassoumi Massaoudou, foreign minister in the ousted civilian government, said Saturday.So far, the coup leaders remain defiant and refuse to restore constitutional order in Niger.
France and the United States together have more than 2,500 military personnel in Niger and with other European partners had poured hundreds of millions of dollars into propping up its military. "It is our business, not theirs. They don't even know the reason why the coup happened in Niger," said Achirou Harouna Albassi, a resident. Bazoum was not abiding by the will of the people, he said.
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