Burkina Faso, Mali Send Combat Jets To Defend Niger Against ECOWAS Force

Burkina Faso and Mali have sent warplanes to Niger Republic in response to a potential armed intervention by the Economic Community of West Africa to restore democracy there.

On Friday, a Niger television station stated that Mali and Burkina Faso were working together to support Niger and that jets had been sent within Niger’s borders.

It stated that “Mali and Burkina Faso turned their commitments into concrete action by deploying warplanes to respond to any attack on Niger,” saying that the aircraft were Super Tucano fighter jets.

President Mohamed Bazoum was detained on June 26 and the elected government of Niger, a significant uranium producer and partner of the West in the struggle against an Islamist insurgency, was overthrown.

On July 30, ECOWAS, headed by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, resolved to impose sanctions on the Nigerian military members and ordered the military junta one week to reinstate Bazoum as president.

On August 10, after the one-week deadline had passed, West African leaders got together and decided to create a “standby force” to bring back elected Bazoum.

The coup plotters had called ECOWAS’s bluff and pledged to thwart outside involvement.

The ECOWAS Defence Chiefs were then instructed to mobilise the region’s army for action to restore civil rule in Niger, warning that it would invade the country on the “D-Day.”

Mali and Burkina Faso’s military governments however, called ECOWAS’s bluff and warned that any armed intervention in Niger would be met with force.

The military chiefs of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger met on Friday in Niamey, the nation’s capital, according to the news station, to decide on “concrete measures” in case ECOWAS decides to “escalate a war.”