Niger military names 21-person cabinet ahead of West African summit

Niger’s coup leaders have announced a list of 21 people they say will become ministers in a new government, forcing their agenda before a summit of regional leaders demanding an end to their military takeover.

Mahamane Roufai Laouali, cited as “secretary-general of the government”, read out the names on state television overnight on August 10, without specifying any further plans, Al Jazeera reports.

Three of the generals who helped in the July 26 removal of democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum were named ministers of defence, interior and sports in the government, which is about half the size of the previous one.

Heads of state in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are scheduled to hold a summit in Nigeria on August 10 to agree on a plan of action for Niger, where the coup leaders have refused to stand down.

Since the coup, which shocked the region, ECOWAS has been calling for Bazoum’s reinstatement. It imposed a number of sanctions including a no-fly zone and has threatened the possible use of force to restore democracy.

The defiant putschists rebuffed diplomatic overtures and ignored an August 6 deadline by ECOWAS. Military governments in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso have promised to treat any military intervention in Niger as a declaration of war on them.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has voiced concerns about Bazoum and his family after his party reported that they were being detained at the presidential residence without electricity or running water, and had gone days without fresh food.

“The secretary-general … once again calls for his immediate, unconditional release and his reinstatement as head of state,” a UN spokesperson said on August 9.

The meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, could prove a pivotal moment in the standoff. The bloc’s leaders are expected to agree on next steps, which could include military intervention – something an ECOWAS official has said would be a last resort.

Former Nigerian central bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi met coup leaders in the Nigerien capital, Niamey, on August 9, offering a glimmer of hope for dialogue after previous ECOWAS missions were spurned.

After a meeting with Nigerian president and ECOWAS chair Bola Tinubu, Sanusi told Nigerian press in Abuja that “interventions are ongoing and will continue”.

“This is a time for public diplomacy. It’s not a matter that we leave to governments. All Nigerians, all Nigeriens need to be involved to find a solution that works for Africa, for Niger, for Nigeria and for humanity,” he said.

A former emir of the northern Nigerian city of Kano, Sanusi is also a leader of the Nigerian order of the Tijaniyyah, a Sufi Muslim sect with origins in Algeria but with followers across West Africa, including Niger.

He is yet to respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment on the mission to Niamey.

Any escalation would further destabilise West Africa’s Sahel region, one of the world’s poorest, where longrunning violence from armed groups has displaced millions and stoked a hunger crisis.

Niger was suspended from ECOWAS following the military coup, just as Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali were after coups occurred there in the last three years.