Two weeks after the blow of state in Niger, in joint letters addressed to the UN and the African Union (AU), the Malian and Burkinabè foreign ministers call on international organizations to assume their responsibility to prevent any military intervention in Niger.
The heads of Malian and Burkinabe diplomats reiterate in their letter their firm condemnation of any military intervention by ECOWAS. They believe without naming any country that this perspective masks the agendas of foreign powers, who are ready to worsen an already precarious security situation.
On August 8th, the spokesperson for Nigerian President Tinubu assured that ECOWAS countries should use diplomacy to resolve the crisis in Niger, but did not rule out any option. Representatives from Ouagadougou and Bamako drew a parallel with the 2011 Western intervention in Libya, which “caused the collapse of the state and the destabilization of the Sahel”.
A Call for Accountability from the UN and the AU
The Malian and Burkinabe foreign ministers appeal to the UN and African Union to take responsibility and prevent armed action against a sovereign state, as they say, the consequences of such action would be unforeseeable. They also warn that the persistence of the West African organization’s counter-productive approach would lead to the dislocation of ECOWAS.