The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has entered the news following the change of government in Niger, as a potential organizer of a military intervention into that nation, to reinstate the deposed president.
ECOWAS moved quickly after the coup, imposing sanctions that included a shutdown of electricity imports to Niger from its neighbor Nigeria. It gave the military government a deadline to leave power and restore President Mohamed Bazoum, a deadline which has come and gone. But the threat of ECOWAS-organized military intervention is not an idle one: “Since 1990, ECOWAS has launched military interventions in seven West African countries, the most recent being in The Gambia in 2017,” writes Alan Macleod in his MintPress News article, “Beyond Niger: How ECOWAS Became a Tool for Western Imperialism in Africa.” (https://www.mintpressnews.com/beyond-niger-how-ecowas-became-tool-western-imperialism-africa/285495/)
And the United States is pushing hard for ECOWAS involvement: “The United States welcomes and commends the strong leadership of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government to defend constitutional order in Niger actions that respect the will of the Nigerien people and align with enshrined ECOWAS and African Union principles of ‘zero tolerance for unconstitutional change,’” said the U.S. State Department.
France, the former (and current?) colonizer of Niger, denounced the coup as “completely illegitimate” and supported “the efforts of ECOWAS to defeat this putsch attempt.”
Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland suggested that the U.S. itself might intervene militarily: “It is not our desire to go there, but they [the new Nigerien government] may push us to that point.”
