African Union Avoids Taking a Stand on Military Force in Niger as Mediator Says Talks ‘Very Fruitful’

The African Union suspended Niger over a July coup that deposed its elected president, but the continental body took a softer line on the thorny question of military intervention by declining to either endorse or reject an invasion to restore democracy.

The ECOWAS block of West African states is organizing an armed “standby force” to defeat Niger’s military junta and reinstate imprisoned President Mohamed Bazoum if coup leaders don't stand down.

But an armed police action remains controversial across the region and the continent.

"While ECOWAS member states approved military intervention to reestablish Mohamed Bazoum into power, the A.U. remains divided and hesitant about the use of force,” Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan-based think tank, told the Associated Press.

“There are countries that are opposed to a military intervention."

The Niger coup, led by the U.S.-trained head of Bazoum’s presidential guard, has unnerved Western allies and democratic African states who are battling Islamist militant insurgent groups across the Sahel region and fearful of expanding Russian influence in the region. 

On Tuesday, the African Union’s peace and security council called on member states and the international community to reject the "unconstitutional change of government and to refrain from any action likely to grant legitimacy to the illegal regime in Niger."

But, 12 days after meeting to discuss Niger, the council avoided taking a stand on ECOWAS’ more bellicose stand, and merely “reiterated its deep concern over the resurgence of military coups d’état and unequivocally condemned the military coup d’état that took place on 26 July 2023 in Niger” and called for a study of the social, economic and security implications of armed intervention.

An African Union vote against an invasion would remove the legal basis for ECOWAS to intervene.

After weeks of rancor between ECOWAS and the junta, regional mediator Abdulsalami Abubakar – himself a former military leader of Nigeria – said that a meeting with coup leaders over the weekend had been “very fruitful.”

"Nobody wants to go to war," Abubakar told reporters in Abuja after briefing Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. "We started talking. They have made their own points. We'll get somewhere hopefully." 

On Monday, ECOWAS commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah rejected a plan by coup leader Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani for a three-year transition back to democracy. Tchiani must "release Bazoum without preconditions, restore constitutional order without further delay," Musah said to Reuters.