Niger’s new rulers want to charge ousted President Mohamed Bazoum with high treason. This was announced by a spokesman for the junta, which has been in power since a coup almost three weeks ago, on Monday night on national radio. Along with Bazoum, other of his “accomplices” would also have to answer in court. High treason can be punished with death in Niger. However, according to Amnesty International, there have been no executions for decades.
On Sunday, the junta in Niger was still open to negotiations with the West African group of states Ecowas. A few days after the coup, Ecowas had called on the new rulers to release the detained president.
Before her trip to West Africa, Development Minister Svenja Schulze called for a peaceful solution to the Niger crisis. “The protest against the coup in Niger must not mean declaring war,” the SPD politician told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. There are numerous ways to approach things differently, for example that there will soon be proper new elections or that the legitimate President Mohamed Bazoum will no longer be held and will not be harmed.
A military coup in Niger two and a half weeks ago triggered a regional crisis. Schulze told the newspaper it was “a rather unusual putsch”. “For example, no one has died. That makes it easier to find diplomatic solutions, which are definitely possible.”
Schulze starts a four-day trip to West Africa on Monday. Then she is expected in Mauritania. On Wednesday we continue to Nigeria. Talks are planned there with representatives of the West African community of states Ecowas, which is chaired by Nigeria. It should also be about how Germany can support efforts to find a peaceful solution in Niger.
Up until the coup, Niger, a country with around 26 million inhabitants and one of the poorest populations in the world, was one of the last democratic partners of the USA and European states in the Sahel region on the southern edge of the Sahara. The coup plunged the region into a political crisis.
At a special summit on Thursday, Ecowas decided to activate a military riot force to restore constitutional order after the coup d’état in Niger.
