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African neighbors finalize Niger war plans

RT | August 4, 2023

The militaries of several ECOWAS members have agreed on a plan for military intervention in Niger and are waiting for a final political decision, a senior official of the bloc said on Friday.

The Economic Community of West African States has already sanctioned the junta in Niamey over last week’s military coup and demanded the restoration of ousted president Mohamed Bazoum before Sunday.

Even as Nigeria sent diplomats to its northern neighbor, its capital Abuja was hosting a planning meeting of ECOWAS chiefs of staff. Notably absent were Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Guinea.

“All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out here, including the resources needed, the how and when we are going [to] deploy the force,” said Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security.

Musah added that the final decision will be made at the political level, but that ECOWAS will not telegraph when and where it will strike.

“ECOWAS will not be used for coups. Democracy is what we stand for and democracy is what we will sustain,” General Christopher Gwabin Musa, chief of Nigeria’s defense staff, told AP.

On Thursday, Bazoum appealed directly to the US to intervene. Washington has some 1,000 troops in Niger, engaged in counter-terrorism operations against Islamist groups that arose after NATO’s 2011 regime change intervention in Libya. Niger’s former colonial master France has another 1,500 troops on the same mission.

The Nigerien junta repudiated all military treaties with France on Thursday, and sacked the country’s ambassadors to the US, France, Togo and Nigeria. Paris and Washington have said they do not intend to remove their troops from the country, and only recognized Bazoum as the legitimate leader.

Niamey has warned both the West and ECOWAS that any military intervention will be met with deadly force. “All aggression or attempt at aggression against the state of Niger will see an immediate response,” junta spokesman Colonel Amadou Abdramane, said on Friday.

In a joint statement earlier this week, Burkina Faso and Mali said that an ECOWAS incursion into Niger will be taken as a declaration of war against them as well.

August 5, 2023 - Posted by | Militarism | ,

1 Comment »

  1. Who are the US and French kidding? US and French bases in Niger are not being used for hunting or disrupting terrorist operations. Proof of my statement lies in the fact that the terrorist group Boko Haram has been ambushing and killing American, Nigerian, Chadian, and Nigerian soldiers and civilians, at will.

    July 5, 2017, Boko Haram ambushes an oil exploration convoy killing 10 Nigerian soldiers. The 10 geological surveyors escaped unharmed.

    October 4, 2017, four U.S. Army Green Berets and four Nigerien soldiers were killed in action during an ambush of a joint U.S.-Nigerien mission outside the village of Tongo Tongo, Niger.

    November 18, 2018, Boko Haram attacks a convoy killing 70 Nigerian soldiers in Borno State.

    March 24, 2020, Boko Haram fighters killed at least 50 Nigerian soldiers in an ambush near Goneri village in northern Yobe state, according to military officials and villagers.

    March 25, 2020, Boko Haram Islamist militants killed 92 Chadian soldiers in an attack on an island in Lake Chad.

    The United States Congressional Committee on Homeland Security condemned Boko Haram as a potential threat to the Homeland in a report dated December 2011! All the attacks named above were committed after. So what have the 2500 American and French counter-terrorism groups based in Niger been doing all this time? Counter-terrorist activities by these two camps have not resulted in interdiction of Boko Haram’s activities. So what are they doing? And who then is fighting back? Nigeria!

    Nigerian military operations have had some success if you count killing a few terrorists a success. What I found instructive are the weapons cache Nigerian troops recovered from an ambush on Boka Haram by the 202 Battalion, 21 Brigade in Operation LAFIYA DOLE in June 2016.

    On June 1st, 2016 Nigerian troops killed 3 and arrested one of the terrorists at Sabsawa-Boarding Road and BOCOBS-Ngurusoye Road. In a related development, earlier the same morning, troops of the 112 Battalion on patrol from Mafa to Dikwa were ambushed at Ajiri village, by Boko Haram terrorists.
    The Nigerian team killed 8 Boko Haram terrorists and recovered arms and ammunition that included, 1 Rocket Propel Grenade (RPG), AK-47 Rifles, 2 Rocket Propel Grenades, 3 AK-47 Rifle Magazines, and 120 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition. The troops also discovered 3 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) Several countries make 7.62 ammo making it hard to put a finger on who is arming Boko Haram. It has been reported that some of the arms going to Ukraine have been sold on the black market and have been reportedly have there way to Africa and Boko Haram terrorists.

    Maybe I’m asking too much, but wouldn’t US and French counter-terrorist activity include arms interdiction and satellite surveillance? Anybody watching TV these days knows that Satellites can be used to detect terrorist training camps. Satellites then would reveal where Boko Haram training camps and base camps are located would they not? And if that were true, and I think it is, then both governments must have issued orders to their respective military bases in Niger to stand down when it came to the African Boko Haram.

    Like

    Comment by Thomas Lee Simpson | August 5, 2023 | Reply


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