Niger’s junta shuts airspace and accuses nations of invasion plans

West African leaders will meet this week to discuss last month’s coup in Niger, after the nation’s junta ignored a Sunday deadline set by the region’s economic bloc to hand power back to the deposed president.

Niger’s mutinous soldiers on Monday closed the country’s airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.

Talks on how the region should respond are scheduled for Thursday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) said in a statement on Monday.

“The Ecowas leaders will be considering and discussing the political situation and recent development in Niger during the summit,” they said in a brief statement.

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Ecowas had threatened last month to use force to remove a group of soldiers that seized power on July 26th and took president Mohamed Bazoum hostage. The junta has rejected all calls to restore democracy and warned against any foreign interference.

Military officials said any attempt to fly over the country would be met with “an energetic and immediate response”.

Niger’s state television announced the move on Sunday night, hours before Ecowas demanded that the coup leaders reinstate Mr Bazoum or face military force.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col Maj Amadou Abdramane, warned over “the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighbouring country” and said Niger’s airspace is closed until further notice.

The junta asserted that two central African countries have joined preparations for an invasion, without specifying which ones, and called on the country’s population to defend it.

Thousands of people in Niger’s capital, Niamey, attended a stadium rally with coup leaders on Sunday.

Counter-terrorism partner

Niger had been seen by the US, France and other partners as their last major counter-terrorism partner in the vast Sahel region, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic Group state have been expanding their range.

Any military intervention by Ecowas could be complicated by a promise from juntas in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to Niger’s defence if needed.

The future of some 1,500 French military personnel and 1,100 US military personnel in Niger is not immediately known, though the junta leaders have severed security arrangements with Paris.

Italy said that it had reduced its troop numbers in Niger to make room in its military base for Italian civilians who may need protection if security deteriorates. Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published on Monday that Ecowas should extend its deadline for the reinstatement of Mr Bazoum.

[ 'It's a disaster': Timeline of the military coup in Niger ]

“The only way is the diplomatic one. I hope that the ultimatum of Ecowas, which expired last night at midnight, will be extended today,” Mr Tajani told La Stampa newspaper. “It is right that he (Bazoum) should be freed, but we cannot do it. The United States are very cautious about this, it is unthinkable that they would start a military intervention in Niger.”

US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Friday called for “the immediate restoration of Niger’s democratically elected government”, and said the US would pause certain foreign assistance programs that benefit the government of Niger. – AP/Reuters/Bloomberg