By our Reporter
Alhaji Abdulsalami Abubakar,former Nigeria’s Head of State -led Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) delegation has landed in Naimy for a final discussion with the military junta led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, was also part of the delegation. The ECOWAS delegation will be joined by United Nations Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simao, who arrived on Friday.
The visit of the delegation is coming a day after the region’s military chiefs said they were ready to intervene to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. The delegation is expected to facilitate a resolution to the ongoing crisis in Niger Republic. A plane carrying the ECOWAS delegation landed in the capital Niamey around 1:00 p.m. (1200 GMT). Niger’s governing military council confirmed the arrival of the ECOWAS representatives. But Burkina Faso and Mali are apparently unfazed by the ECOWAS Military Chiefs’ threat of possible intervention in Niger. The two countries under military rulers were reported to have deployed war planes to within Niger’s borders on Friday. “Mali and Burkina Faso turned their commitments into concrete action by deploying warplanes to respond to any attack on Niger,” it said, noting the planes were Super Tucano fighter jets. The military governments in Mali and Burkina Faso called ECOWAS’s bluff, saying an armed intervention in Niger would be met with force. The television station said the military leaders from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger convened Friday in the Nigerien capital Niamey to decide on “concrete measures” in case ECOWAS chooses to “escalate a war.”