The United States of America has insisted on the return to constitutional order in the Niger Republic following the detention of the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, by the country’s military junta.
This was disclosed by US acting Deputy Secretary, Victoria Nuland, in a special briefing on the situation of things in Niger via a teleconference on Tuesday.
She said, “We are at the stage where our assistance is paused. There is still a lot of motion here on many sides with regard to where the governance situation will go.
“So we’ll be watching the situation, but we understand our legal responsibilities and I explained those very clearly to the guys (Niger junta) who were responsible for this and that it is not our desire to go there, but they may push us to that point, and we asked them to be prudent in that regard and to hear our offer to try to work with them to solve this diplomatically and return to constitutional order.”
“So we will be watching that closely and there are a number of regional meetings coming up and consultations with allies and partners that we need to make.
Nuland who is also the Under Secretary for Political Affairs restated President Joe Biden’s resolve to support and strengthen the economy, prosperity, hopes, security, and the work for counterterrorism.
“The Secretary, as you have seen, has made repeated calls of support to the elected president of Niger, President Bazoum, to check on his welfare and to talk about the road ahead.
“He’s also been in regular touch with President Tinubu of Nigeria, who is currently head of ECOWAS, with AU Chairperson Faki, and with a number of European allies with whom we work in Niger, particularly on counterterrorism.
“And all of this has been rooted in our shared values, including the sense of democracy, which was why it was so difficult, and remains difficult, to see the current challenge to the democratic order which began on July 26,” she stressed.
While fielding questions on the deployment of Wagner security forces by the coup plotters, Nuland noted that the junta who have taken the action understood very well the risks to their sovereignty when Wagner is invited in, adding, “Of course I raised the – Wagner and its threat to those countries where it is present, reminding them that security gets worse, that human rights get worse when Wagner enters.”
