The General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led team President Bola Tinubu sent to Niger republic is on its way back after failing to talk the country’s military junta into stepping down.
The team from the West African regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States, could not meet the leader of the junta which seized power in a coup, one of the members of the delegation said Friday.
The ECOWAS delegation arrived in Niamey on Thursday “but did not spend the night” as scheduled, nor meet with coup leader Abdourahamane Tiani or deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, the team member said.
The team was billed to meet Tiani to present ECOWAS’s demands, according to the Nigerian presidency.
Nigeria currently leads the ECOWAS, and has imposed sanctions and on Sunday just as it gave the coupists a week to restore Bazoum to power.
President Tinubu, however, said the bloc will do its best to resolve the crisis amicably but ECOWAS said it could resort to military intervention as a last resort.
Niger’s junta meanwhile warned it would meet force with force.
“Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc’s) members,” one of the juntas said in a statement read on national television late Thursday.
