The stage is set for military conflict in Africa. Following Niger\u2019s coup d\u2019\u00e9tat that ousted president Mohamed Bazoum, France and the Western community are backing the Economic Community of West African States, that issued an ultimatum to the coup junta, threatening military action as the last resort. So far, Nigeria, Senegal, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and Benin have confirmed their readiness to take part in the intervention.<\/p>\n
On the other side, Russian-friendly Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali \u2013 called the \u2018Coup Association\u2019 by its detractors online, have already locked arms and vowed to defend Niger in case of attack.<\/p>\n
Niger\u2019s \u2018National Council for Safeguarding the Homeland\u2019 has denounced the military pact with France and warned the neighboring African states not to intervene.<\/p>\n
RT<\/a> reported:<\/p>\n \u201cIn a televised address on Thursday night, a\u00a0representative of the putschist government said that Niger will\u00a0\u2018immediately\u2019\u00a0suspend all military cooperation agreements with France, including the deal under which Paris has deployed around 1,500 troops in the Sahel country.<\/em><\/p>\n Earlier in the day, on the 63rd anniversary of Niger\u2019s independence from Paris, [provisional leader] Tchiani\u2019s junta blocked the signal of French broadcasters France 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI), again according to AFP.<\/em><\/p>\n The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has issued an ultimatum to Niger to restore the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum by Friday or face a military intervention. Niger\u2019s southern neighbor Nigeria has already begun mustering troops on the border, according to local media.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Both Mali and Burkina Faso have said that they would consider any invasion of Niger an act of war against themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThe junta\u00a0\u2018rejects all sanctions and refuses to yield to any threat, wherever it may come from\u2019,\u00a0Tchiani said in a televised speech on Wednesday.\u00a0\u2018If they [ECOWAS] pursue their destructive logic to the end, may Allah watch over Niger and ensure that this is the final great battle we will fight together for a true independence of our nation\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n At this point, frantic diplomatic negotiations are taking place to avoid a conflict that can engulf Russia and the West in yet another proxy war.<\/p>\n Le Monde<\/a> reported:<\/p>\n \u201cA delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) arrived in Niamey on the evening of Thursday August 3 to try to find a way out of the crisis, eight days after the coup d\u2019etat in Niger which overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.<\/em><\/p>\n The elected official, sequestered at his home, spoke through a forum in the American newspaper Washington Post: \u2018I call on the American government and the entire international community to help restore constitutional order, fight for our common values\u2019, he wrote while recalling the \u2018devastating\u2019 consequences of the coup, in particular the \u2018Russian influence\u2019 propagated by the Wagner Group in the Sahel region.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n While ECOWAS insist military action is the last resort, Nigeria has moved troops to the Niger border, and countries like Senegal have already signaled their readiness to engage in military action if the ultimatum is not respected.<\/p>\n \u201cOn Thursday, the programs of RFI (Radio France Internationale) and the news television channel France 24 were interrupted in Niger, \u2018a decision taken outside any conventional and legal framework\u2019, according to the parent company of the two media, France World Media.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The signal of the channels was cut by orders of the nbew military authorities.<\/p>\n \u201cFrance \u2018very strongly\u2019 condemned this decision and \u2018reaffirmed its constant and determined commitment to freedom of the press, freedom of expression and the protection of journalists\u2019, declared the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a communicated. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for its part denounced \u2018a violation of the public\u2019s right to plural information in an already difficult security context in the Sahel\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The situation can be understood in the context of the fading French influence in the continent, while Russia has just concluded a summit with its many African partners, eyeing ever-growing ties in the region.<\/p>\n Associated Press<\/a> reported:<\/p>\n \u201cNot everyone is hostile to the coups in\u00a0Niger\u00a0and\u00a0other African nations\u00a0in the past few years that have worried the West. In the \u2018family photo\u2019 for last week\u2019s Russia-Africa Summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood next to Ibrahim Traore, the young military officer who seized power in\u00a0Burkina Faso\u00a0in September.<\/em><\/p>\n It was an uncomfortable moment for many leaders elsewhere in Africa. \u2018The normalization and dignifying of military takeovers must trouble our great continent\u2019, Kenya\u2019s principal secretary for foreign affairs wrote while sharing the photo this week.<\/em><\/p>\n Now Burkina Faso and another military junta-led country friendly with Russia, Mali, have taken the unusual step of declaring that foreign military intervention in neighboring Niger after last week\u2019s coup would be considered a declaration of war against them, too.<\/em><\/p>\n [\u2026] \u2018A possible regional-level scenario might see the military juntas in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso team up\u2019 to challenge the region\u2019s traditional response to coups, [a UN report] said. It warned they could defy sanctions and stand for elections, with help from \u2018new international alliances\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Niger was the United States and allies\u2019 last major counterterrorism partner\u00a0in the region.<\/p>\n Now, ECOWAS \u2018stands with [their] people\u2019 in a commitment to the rule of law, as they said in a message at its emergency meeting this week, where they discussed their<\/p>\n \u201cThe 15-nation bloc summoned its defense chiefs to discuss its threat to \u2018take all measures necessary (that) may include the use of force\u2019 if ousted Nigerien President\u00a0<\/em>Mohamed Bazoum<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is not reinstated within one week. ECOWAS is resolved to use military force after economic and travel sanctions used against the coup plotters failed, according to a Western diplomat in Niamey who did not want to be identified for security reasons.<\/em><\/p>\n How the bloc would carry out its threat remains unclear given its lack of coordination in providing security regionally and formally with the U.S. State Department in Niger, said Aneliese Bernard, director of Strategic Stabilization Advisors.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018There\u2019s not enough actual trust among ECOWAS members, and that lack of trust is what will break any type of coordinated response\u2019, Bernard said.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The post Welcome to the Next Proxy War: France and US Back West African \u2018Democracies\u2019 Trying To Overturn Niger Coup, While Russia Backs Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea Vowing To Defend the Military Junta<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The stage is set for military conflict in Africa. Following Niger\u2019s coup d\u2019\u00e9tat that ousted president Mohamed Bazoum,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n