Niger: ACCRA HOSTS ECOWAS CHIEFS OF STAFF SUMMIT TO ACTIVATE STANDBY FORCE
Despite the rejection by African civil society organisations, state and continental institutions of the use of military force to restore constitutional order in Niger, ECOWAS has no intention of reconsidering its position, at least not for the time being. Therefore, an Ecowas Chiefs of Staff Summit is held in Accra this Thursday.
The Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff of the sub-regional organisation is opening an extraordinary meeting in Accra, Ghana, on Thursday 17 August, to finalise the modalities for the deployment of the standby force which has already begun, as agreed in Abuja on 10 August.
Notwithstanding the major challenges of insecurity, economic crisis and underdevelopment facing West African states, which ECOWAS is either powerless or negligent to address, political decision-makers are maintaining their decision to declare war on Niger in order, it is claimed, to dislodge the military in power and reinstate Mohamed Bazoum, the appointed sponsor of jihadists in the Sahel.
Like the people of Nigeria, this Ecowas Chiefs of Staff Summit is the opportunity for ghanaians to call on their sense of solidarity with the people of Niger and condemn this suicidal decision by ECOWAS.
The Ghanaian people and the entire West African community must demonstrate their rage to make the French-influenced ECOWAS understand that there is no question of opening a front in the brotherly country of Niger to preserve to preserve the interests of some imperialist power, at the peril of the people of Niger and Africans living in the country.
Fayçal BADIE
