W.Africa Military Chiefs to Discuss Niger Crisis This Week

 Men blow into vuvuzelas while waving Russian and Niger flags as they head towards concert in support to Niger's National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) at the General Seyni Kountche Stadium in Niamey on August 13, 2023. (AFP)
Men blow into vuvuzelas while waving Russian and Niger flags as they head towards concert in support to Niger's National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) at the General Seyni Kountche Stadium in Niamey on August 13, 2023. (AFP)
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W.Africa Military Chiefs to Discuss Niger Crisis This Week

 Men blow into vuvuzelas while waving Russian and Niger flags as they head towards concert in support to Niger's National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) at the General Seyni Kountche Stadium in Niamey on August 13, 2023. (AFP)
Men blow into vuvuzelas while waving Russian and Niger flags as they head towards concert in support to Niger's National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) at the General Seyni Kountche Stadium in Niamey on August 13, 2023. (AFP)

Military chiefs from the West African bloc ECOWAS will meet in Ghana this week to discuss possible intervention in Niger, military and political sources in the region said Tuesday.

The meeting on Thursday and Friday -- originally scheduled for last weekend but then postponed -- came after ECOWAS leaders last week approved deployment of a "standby force to restore constitutional order" in Niger, whose president was toppled on July 26.

Their summit, held in the Nigerian capital Abuja last Thursday, also reaffirmed the bloc's preference for a diplomatic outcome.

President Mohamed Bazoum's election in 2021 was a landmark in Niger's history, ushering in the country's first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.

His ousting unleashed a shock wave around West Africa, where Mali and Burkina Faso -- likewise battered by an extremist insurgency -- have also suffered military takeovers.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave Niger's military rulers a one-week ultimatum on July 30 to restore Bazoum or face the potential use of force, but the deadline expired without action.

Analysts say military intervention would be operationally risky and politically hazardous, given divisions within ECOWAS ranks and domestic criticism.

In Benin, people living at Malanville -- the country's sole border crossing with Niger -- said Tuesday that a shipping container had been placed on the Nigerien side of the border to block the road, apparently to act as a barrier against invasion.

Defiance and diplomacy

Niger's military regime has sent mixed signals since the crisis erupted.

At the weekend, the coup leaders said they were open to a diplomatic push after their chief, General Abdourahamane Tiani, met with Nigerian religious mediators.

Those talks came after the ECOWAS military meeting in Ghana was postponed for "technical reasons".

But on Sunday night, Niger's rulers declared they had gathered sufficient evidence to prosecute Bazoum for "high treason and undermining internal and external security".

The legal threat was angrily condemned by ECOWAS, which lashed it as a contradiction of the regime's "reported willingness" to explore peaceful means. Washington said it was "incredibly dismayed".

The row overshadowed talks under African Union (AU) auspices that began on Monday in Addis Ababa, bringing together representatives from the regime and ECOWAS.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a "peaceful political and diplomatic" resolution to the crisis in a phone call with Mali's junta leader, Assimi Goita, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

Mali has cemented an alliance with Moscow since its coup in 2020, acquiring Russian planes and helicopters and bringing in paramilitaries that the West says are Wagner mercenaries.

Poor and unstable

A landlocked nation in the heart of the arid Sahel, Niger is one of the world's poorest and most turbulent countries.

Bazoum, 63, survived two attempted coups before being ousted, in the fifth putsch in the country's history.

His ousting deals a huge blow to French and US strategy in the Sahel.

France refocused its anti-extremist operations on Niger after withdrawing from Mali and Burkina Faso last year following a bust-up with their juntas.

International concern is mounting for the state of Bazoum, his wife and son, who have been held at the president's official residence since the coup.

Niger meanwhile is being hit by ECOWAS trade and financial sanctions, while France, Germany and the United States have suspended their aid programs.

The Sahel Alliance, an international platform to attract development assistance for the region, on Tuesday called for a return to civilian rule and expressed concern for the impact of the coup on vulnerable populations.



Russia Launches New Year Drone Strike on Kyiv, 2 Killed

A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 01 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 01 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT
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Russia Launches New Year Drone Strike on Kyiv, 2 Killed

A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 01 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 01 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT

Russia launched a drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Wednesday, killing two people, wounding six others and damaging buildings in two districts, Reuters quoted city officials as saying.
Explosions boomed across the morning sky as Ukraine's air force warned of drones approaching the capital and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air defenses were repelling an enemy attack.
Two floors of a residential building were partially destroyed in the strike, according to the State Emergency Service said. Two people were killed, it said.
Photos posted by the State Emergency Service showed firefighters dousing a gutted corner of a building and rescuers helping elderly victims.
The National Bank of Ukraine said in a statement that one of its buildings had been damaged by debris from a downed drone. Debris also damaged a non-residential building in a different neighborhood, Klitschko added.
"Even on New Year's Eve, Russia was only concerned about how to hurt Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on social media in response to the strike.
Kyiv's military said it had shot down 63 out of 111 drones launched by Russia overnight across various regions of Ukraine. Another 46 had been downed by electronic jamming, it added.
Russia has carried out regular airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front line of its nearly three-year-old invasion. 
Zelenskiy said late on Tuesday that no one would give peace to his country as a gift, but he believed the United States would stand alongside Kyiv.

Zelenskiy, in a slick 21-minute New Year video greeting to his compatriots, also said only a strong Ukraine could secure peace and earn worldwide respect.

"We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift, but we will do everything to stop Russia and end the war, something each of us desires," Zelenskiy said against a backdrop of the blue-and-yellow national flag, battlefield scenes and pictures of children.
He recalled conversations with outgoing US President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and "everyone who supports us in the United States.”

"I have no doubt that the new American president wants and will be able to bring peace and end (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's aggression," Zelenskiy said.
"He understands that the former is impossible without the latter. Because this is not a street brawl where the two sides need to be pacified. This is a full-scale aggression by a deranged state against a civilized one. And I believe that, together with the United States, we are capable of the strength to force Russia into a just peace."
Russia, Zelenskiy said, was not to be trusted either in battle or in talks.
"If today Russia shakes your hand, it doesn't mean that tomorrow the same hand will not start killing you," he said. "Russians fear those who are free. What they don't understand. They fear freedom."