Nigerian religious leaders arrived in Niamey on Saturday to meet members of the military regime, which came to power in a coup that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum, AFP learned from a source close to the regime.
The delegation was received at Diori Hamani airport by the newly appointed civilian Prime Minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine. According to the Nigerian Press Agency (ANP), it is a delegation of religious leaders of the Muslim faith.
“Standby Strength”
This source adds that the delegation “met at the beginning of the week in Abuja the current president” of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and also President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, in order to attempt a mediation between the regional organization and Niger.
This mediation comes when ECOWAS continues to favor a resolution of the crisis through diplomatic channels, after having however agreed to the deployment of a “standby force” to restore Bazoum to his duties.
Previous attempts at mediation came to nothing. The military regime refused on Tuesday to host a joint delegation from ECOWAS, the African Union (AU) and the UN. In Nigeria, the voices of parliamentarians and political leaders are rising as far as the Senate, asking President Bola Tinubu to reconsider a possible military intervention by ECOWAS in Niger against the putschists.