The United States of America has cautioned the leaders of the Niger coup that they might face military involvement if the military rulers of the country do not relinquish power and return it to President Mohamed Bazoum.
According to The Vanguard reports, the US acting Deputy Secretary, Victoria Nuland, in a special briefing on Niger disclosed this a teleconference on Tuesday.
She stated, “There is still a lot of motion here on many sides with regard to where the governance situation will go.
“So we will be watching that closely and there are a number of regional meetings coming up and consultations with allies and partners that we need to make.
“So we’ll be watching the situation, but we understand our legal responsibilities and I explained those very clearly to the guys (Niger junta) who were responsible for this and that it is not our desire to go there, but they may push us to that point, and we asked them to be prudent in that regard and to hear our offer to try to work with them to solve this diplomatically and return to constitutional order.”
Nuland noted that President Joe Biden has been in constant touch with President Tinubu, the ECOWAS Chairman as well as many other European allies.
Meanwhile, the Economic Community Of West Africa States (ECOWAS) on Tuesday imposed fresh sanctions over the coup in Niger Republic.
Recall that the regional bloc had given coup leaders in Niger seven days to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or risk sanctions, including possible military action.
The coup leaders, however, did not feel threatened by the decree of ECOWAS and vowed to resist any foreign intervention on its soil.
It also severed ties with Nigeria, Togo, France and US, and shut down Nigerien airspace indefinitely.
Following the end of the ultimatum ECOWAS on Monday fixed a meeting for Thursday to review the situation in the West African nation.
Presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngeale while addressing State House correspondents on Tuesday said more sanctions had been imposed on the individuals and entities relating with the military junta in the Niger Republic.
Although he did not go into details, he said this was carried out through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
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