Niger’s Minister of Defense, General Salifou Moby in a talks with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé in the capital Lomé earlier on Tuesday declared that Togo will act as a mediator in its negotiations with ECOWAS and international community.
The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) had, as a consequence of the July 26 coup imposed strict financial sanctions on Niger to force the military to surrender.
An elected President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown by the Military junta in the west African country late in July.
This has led to provocations from ECOWAS with the body threatening to launch a military incursion into Niger after the coup.
Unlike many other counties, General Mody thanked Togo for sustaining relationship with the military Junta and described the sanctions from ECOWAS and international community as ‘cynical’.
“We have never closed our country to our friends (…) Niger remains open, even if arrangements have been made so that we can no longer speak with them,” General Mody told the press after his meeting with President Gnassingbé.
“We have asked the President of the Republic of Togo to be a mediator, to facilitate this dialogue with our various partners,” he stated.
Togo, although an ECOWAS member, has taken several bilateral moves to engage in dialogue with the military regime in Niger.
” We are asking Togo, our brother country, in view of what it continues to give us, to be our guarantor” in the framework of the agreement framing the French military withdrawal, which is “progressing” and taking place “normally”. Moddy added.
However, Togo’s Foreign Minister, Robert Dussey, told the press conference that his country was ready to assume the position of “facilitator” in the dialogue between Niger and the international community.
He thanked General Mody for designated Togo alongside the United States of America, as the guarantor country for the withdrawal of French forces
