An ECOWAS delegation to negotiate with the officers who seized power in Niger also met with President Mohamed Bazoum on Saturday, a source close to the West African bloc told AFP.
Bazoum was “in good spirits,” the source added. A Niger Agency reporter at the presidential palace confirmed that the meeting took place.
Although he was still without electricity. A Niger Agency reporter confirmed the meeting at the presidential palace on Saturday afternoon. The delegation arrived in Niger on Saturday to hold talks with senior military officers who seized power in a coup last month in hopes of a military confrontation.
Led by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar, ECOWAS representatives also met with some of the officers who seized power,the source said, but did not say whether coup leader General Abdourahamane Tian was among them.
A previous ECOWAS delegation led by Abubakar tried to meet him earlier this month but failed.
A source close to the latest delegation said it would send a “message of strength” to military officers and meet Bazoum.
ECOWAS defense chiefs met this week in Ghana’s capital, Accra, to hammer out details of a possible military operation to retake Bazoum if continued talks with the coup leaders fail. Supporters of Niger’s junta were forced on Saturday to suspend the counting of people who volunteered for non-military duties to guard against possible intervention by West African powers, saying they were overwhelmed by the turnout.
Thousands of mostly young men gathered outside Niamey’s stadium in the capital hours before the event was scheduled to start, a sign of strong support in some quarters for the junta, which has defied international pressure to step down on July 26. President Mohamed Bazoum was deposed.
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