Niger reopens land and air borders after coup

Niger’s land and air borders with five neighbouring countries have been reopened, nearly a week after they were closed following a coup that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum, one of the putschists announced Tuesday on national television.

“The land and air borders with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali and Chad are reopened” from “today”, he declared, hours after a first French evacuation flight took off and five days before a deadline to restore constitutional order issued by a bloc of West African countries.

Military chiefs to meet to discuss Niger coup

Meanwhile, military chiefs of members of the West African bloc ECOWAS will meet in the Nigerian capital Abuja from Wednesday to Friday to discuss the coup in Niger, the organisation said.

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On Sunday the Economic Community of West African States slapped sanctions on Niger and warned it may use force as it gave the junta a week to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum.

An ECOWAS official also told AFP Tuesday that a delegation from the bloc led by former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar would visit Niger on Wednesday.

The coup has worried Western countries struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency that flared in northern Mali in 2012, advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso three years later and now overshadows fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea.

Countless numbers of civilians, troops and police have been killed across the region, many in ruthless massacres, while around 2.2 million people in Burkina Faso alone have fled their homes. The economic damage has been devastating.

© Agence France-Presse

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