Burkina Faso approves law for sending troops to Niger
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The new law allows Burkina to dispatch a military force to Niger for a three-month period that is renewable.
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Nigerien national guardsmen sit outside the customs offices in Niamey, Niger, on Monday, Aug. 21, 2023 (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)
The bill allowing the sending of troops to the neighboring country of Niger was approved by Burkina Faso's transitional legislature on Tuesday. Niger faces the danger of military intervention to restore civilian government after a coup.
The new law allows Burkina to dispatch a military force to Niger for a three-month period that is renewable.
It establishes a legislative framework for the deployment, whose goal is to provide "military assistance to the Republic of Niger in the event of aggression or destabilization by an external army, but also to fight against terrorism," according to Defence Minister Kassoum Coulibaly.
The crisis in Niger was sparked on July 26, when the presidential guard detained President Bazoum, leading to the subsequent declaration of interim leadership by Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who also assumed the presidency of the Caretaker National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.
ECOWAS has resorted to implementing a full pressure campaign on the country, which included the closure of land and air borders between the bloc's countries and Niger, the suspension of all commercial and financial transactions with it, and the freezing of the country's assets in ECOWAS Central Banks.
The bloc gave Niger's coup leaders one week to reinstate the detained president, or the community would use "all measures," including military, to "restore order" in the African nation.
On their part, the military governments of Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger's neighbors, warned that any military intervention against Niger would be considered a declaration of war against them.
