As the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) seeks support to invade Niger Republic if the military junta fails to reinstate ousted Mohamed Bazoum, the prime minister, appointed by the General Abdourahamane Tchiani-led junta, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, on Tuesday, visited neighbouring Chad.
The visit is coming as the military junta has also agreed to diplomatic solution to the crisis.
Zeine arrived in Chad for a “working visit,” the Chadian government said on Facebook.
In a statement issued after meeting Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, Zeine said he had brought a message of “good neighbourliness and good fraternity” from the head of Niger’s regime.
“We are in a process of transition, we discussed the ins and outs and reiterated our availability to remain open and talk with all parties, but insist on our country’s independence,” he said.
Deby, a key player in the unstable Sahel, had flown to the Nigerien capital Niamey four days after the coup.
Photos later showed him pictured next to the detained Bazoum and, separately, with one of the regime’s leaders, General Salifou Mody.
Diplomacy call
Zeine’s unannounced visit came hours after sources in the region said military chiefs from the regional bloc ECOWAS would meet in Ghana on Thursday and Friday to discuss possible intervention in Niger.
The meeting — originally scheduled for last Saturday but then postponed — flows from an ECOWAS summit last week which approved deployment of a “standby force to restore constitutional order” in Niger.
AFP
