COUP SUPPORTERS PROTEST NEAR FRENCH BASE IN NIGER.(PHOTO).

Coup supporters protest near French base in Niger

... as Russia and Algeria warns ECOWAS 

Thousands of coup supporters rallied near a French military base in Niger on Friday, a day after West African leaders said they would muster a “standby” force in their efforts to reinstate the country’s deposed leader.

Fears also mounted for elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted by members of his guard on July 26, with reports saying his detention conditions were deteriorating.

Protesters near the base on the outskirts of the capital Niamey shouted “down with France, down with ECOWAS”, a reference to the West African bloc which on Thursday approved deployment of a “standby force to restore constitutional order”.

Many brandished Russian and Niger flags and yelled their support for the country’s new strongman, General Abdourahamane Tiani.

“We are going to make the French leave! ECOWAS isn’t independent, it’s being manipulated by France,” said one demonstrator, Aziz Rabeh Ali, a member of a students’ union.

Former colonial power France has around 1,500 personnel in Niger as part of a force battling an eight-year-old jihadist insurgency.

It is facing growing hostility across the Sahel, withdrawing its anti-jihadist forces from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso last year after falling out with military governments that ousted elected leaders.

Troubled region

Since 1990, the 15-country bloc has intervened among six of its members at times of civil war, insurrection or political turmoil.

But the possibility of intervention in deeply fragile Niger has sparked debate within its ranks and warnings from neighbouring Algeria as well as Russia.

Moscow on Friday said a military solution “could lead to a protracted confrontation” in Niger and “a sharp destabilisation” across the Sahel.

Military-ruled ECOWAS members Mali and Burkina Faso have warned an intervention would be a “declaration of war” on their countries.

Countries in the arid western Sahel region are among the world’s poorest and most turbulent nations.

The latest coup is Niger’s fifth since the landlocked country gained independence from France in 1960.

Like Mali and Burkina Faso, the country is struggling with a brutal jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives, forced many people from their homes and undermined faith in government.

AFP