The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) approved military intervention in Niger "as soon as possible" to restore constitutional order, announced Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara on Thursday.
"The chiefs of staff will have other conferences to finalize things, but they have the agreement of the Conference of Heads of State for the operation to start as soon as possible," said Ouattara as he returned from the emergency ECOWAS summit.
ECOWAS decided to deploy the organization's standby force for possible use against the junta in Niger and demand the return of the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum to office.
The ECOWAS Chair, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, said after a summit to discuss the coup in Niger: "No option is taken off the table, including the use of force as a last resort."
An official statement was read out, which included a resolution asking the bloc's defense chiefs to "activate the ECOWAS Standby Force with all its elements immediately," according to Reuters.
ECOWAS Commission President Omar Touray said after the extraordinary summit that the organization had ordered the deployment of the ECOWAS reserve force to restore constitutional order in Niger.
Representatives of the junta told US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland of the threat to Bazoum during her visit to the country this week, a Western military official told the Associated Press (AP).
The summit, which Nigeria hosted Thursday, was held to discuss the response of the ECOWAS leaders after the military junta in Niamey challenged their previous threat to use force to restore democracy.
The meeting, which included closed-door talks, occurred hours after the coup leaders formed a new government, which imposed itself on the summit's agenda before it began.
Since the July 26 coup, the military council rejected diplomatic initiatives and ignored the August 06 deadline set by ECOWAS to relinquish power and free Bazoum to exercise his mandate.
