Niger’s military junta has asked the French ambassador to leave the country, the Nigerien Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, August 24. French Ambassador Sylvain Itte was asked to leave Niger within 48 hours in a letter that accused him of ignoring an invitation for a meeting with the ministry.
The letter dated Friday, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press, also cited "actions of the French government contrary to the interests of Niger" as among the reasons for Itte's expulsion.
Niger, a former French colony, was France's partner before last month's coup in the fight against jihadi violence.
Niger was seen as one of the last democratic countries in the Sahel region below the Sahara Desert that Western nations could partner with against a growing jihadi insurgency. The ECOWAS commission president, Omar Alieu Touray, said Friday that the bloc's threat to use force to reinstate the deposed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum is "still on the table,” rejecting the junta's three-year transition plan.
Eleven of the bloc's 15 countries – not including the military-ruled countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger itself – have expressed commitments to deploy troops to restore democracy in Niger once a decision is made to intervene. The bloc would in the meantime continue to explore diplomatic options to reverse the coup, Touray told reporters in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja.
The latest of such diplomatic efforts came Thursday when Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who is the chairman of the regional bloc, sent a delegation of Islamic leaders to speak with the junta. Touray said the West African heads of state would decide on when to use force whenever it feels like all diplomatic means have failed. "ECOWAS cannot just fold its hands," he asserted.
Details of what has been called the ECOWAS "standby" force have not be released. Regional officials have suggested any military intervention would be like the force deployed in Gambia in 2017 to force Yahya Jammeh out of power as president after he refused to concede an election loss.
ECOWAS already has joined Western and European countries in imposing sanctions against Niger, including cutting the supply of its electricity from Nigeria and the closure of borders with the countries' neighbors.