US diplomat meets Niger’s military leaders, not allowed to meet ousted President

Niamey, The Gulf Observer: The second-ranking US diplomat has met Niger’s military leaders to press to reverse a coup but she reported no headway a day after the junta ignored an ultimatum from the West African bloc.

Victoria Nuland, a veteran envoy who is the acting deputy secretary of state, said she met on Monday for more than two hours with chiefs of the military who on July 26 ousted Mohamed Bazoum, a democratically elected Western ally.

She described the talks as “extremely frank and at times quite difficult” but that she offered “a number of options” to exit the crisis and restore the relationship with the United States, which like other Western nations has suspended aid over the coup.

“This was a first conversation in which the United States was offering its good offices if there is a desire on the part of the people who are responsible for this to return to the constitutional order,” she told reporters by telephone before flying out.

“I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer.”

She said the junta did not respond to her requests to meet Niger’s junta’s leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, or the detained elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, although US officials have been in touch with Bazoum by telephone.

Nuland said she met Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, who has been named the new military chief of staff and who has worked closely in the past with the United States, which along with former colonial power France has based anti-extremist operations in the Sahel out of Niger.

Nuland said she warned Niger against following neighbouring Mali in bringing in Russia’s Wagner mercenaries.

“The people who have taken this action here understand very well the risks to their sovereignty when Wagner is invited in,” said Nuland, known for her hawkish stance on Russia.