African Union Suspends Niger

<h4>African Union Suspends Niger<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>OpenLife Nigeria <&sol;strong>has reliably gathered from an earlier report in AP that the African Union&comma; on Tuesday&comma; suspended Niger from all of its institutions and activities &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;until the effective restoration of constitutional order” following last month’s coup&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The council of the 55-nation bloc made the decision after mutinous soldiers overthrew Niger’s democratically elected president last month and quickly entrenched themselves in power&comma; rebuffing most dialogue efforts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>President Mohamed Bazoum&comma; his wife and son have been kept under house arrest in the capital&comma; Niamey&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This was the council’s first public communication since it met earlier this month to discuss Niger’s crisis&period; The Council called on all member states and the international community to reject the country’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;unconstitutional change of government and to refrain from any action likely to grant legitimacy to the illegal regime in Niger&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The AU commission and the West African regional bloc&comma; ECOWAS were requested to urgently submit a list of members of the the military junta and their military and civilian supporters&comma; including those involved in the violation of human rights of Bazoum and other detainees for targeted sanctions&comma; it said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the moment&comma; severe economic and travel sanctions imposed by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS after mutinous soldiers ousted the country&&num;8217&semi;s democratically elected president in July&comma; are taking a toll on Nigeriens and causing concern for health workers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Until now&comma; Niger was seen by Western countries as one of the last partners in the Sahel region below the Sahara Desert that it could work with to counter a growing jihadi insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>France and the United States have some 2&comma;500 military personnel in the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>ECOWAS&comma; which has struggled to beat back a string of coups in recent years&comma; has threatened the use of force if Bazoum is not reinstated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the deadline to reinstall him came and went with no action&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The AU did not weigh in on whether it would support the use of military force&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The AU’s Peace and Security Council could overrule a military intervention if it felt that wider stability on the continent was threatened by it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Analysts say if it rejects the use of force&comma; there are few grounds under which ECOWAS could claim legal justification&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;While ECOWAS member states approved military intervention to reestablish Mohamed Bazoum into power&comma; the AU remains divided and hesitant about the use of force&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are countries that are opposed to a military intervention&comma;” said Rida Lyammouri&comma; senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South&comma; a Moroccan-based think tank&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Council urged the military to place the interests of Nigeriens above all else and to immediately and unconditionally return to the barracks&comma; and submit to civilian authorities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;