Algeria’s national radio reported on Monday that France is planning a military intervention in Niger if Nigerian President Mohamed Bazoum is not released by the junta that ousted him in a July 26 coup.
The radio report cited a government source who said Algeria is opposed to any intervention in Niger over fears it will destabilize the region and lead to a migrant crisis, as the disastrous US and NATO intervention in Libya did.
According to Israel’s i24, the Algerian report said that "France is preparing to carry out its threats against the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) in Niger, by carrying out a military intervention in the event that President Mohamed Bazoum is not released." The CNSP is the name the military junta has given its post-coup government.
The Algerian report also said that Algeria denied a request from France to use its airspace as part of a potential Niger intervention. "The military intervention is said to be imminent, with all the military apparatus in place," the radio report said. "Algeria, which has always rejected the use of force, has given a negative response to the French request to fly over its national territory to attack Niger. Algiers’ response is firm and unequivocal."
On Tuesday, a French official denied that Paris asked to use Algeria’s airspace. "France’s joint defense staff denies making a request to fly over Algerian territory," said a source within the French army, according to Reuters.
France, the former colonial ruler of Algeria and Niger, has about 1,500 troops in Niger and has backed threats from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) if Bazoum is not reinstated. ECOWAS said after a recent meeting of its military chiefs that it’s ready to intervene once the order is given and that the bloc is still leaving room for diplomacy. However, the Niger junta has shown no sign that its willing to give in to ECOWAS’s main demand: the reinstatement of Bazoum.
Photo: Map of Niger. © Nations Online Project
Source: Antiwar.
