US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised the results of the extraordinary summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held in Nigeria, Sunday, and imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on Niger’s military leaders who overthrew President Mohammad Bazoum.
The United States welcomes and commends the strong leadership of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government to defend constitutional order in Niger, actions that respect the will of the Nigerien people and align with enshrined ECOWAS and African Union principles of “zero tolerance for unconstitutional change, Blinken said in a statement.
“We join ECOWAS and regional leaders in calling for the immediate release of President Mohammad Bazoum and his family and the restoration of all state functions to the legitimate, democratically-elected government,” Blinken said.
The United States further welcomes the dispatch of the special representative of the ECOWAS Chair to Niger and urges all parties to work with ECOWAS for a peaceful and expeditious resolution of the current situation. The United States will remain actively engaged with ECOWAS and West African leaders on next steps to preserve Niger’s hard-earned democracy, he added.
The countries of the ECOWAS group, consisting of 15 countries, following and emergency summit earlier, imposed economic and other sanctions related to travel restrictions on the military who announced the overthrew of Niger’s President Mohammad Bazoum, and threatened to “the use of force” if the constitutional order was not restored in Niger.
The countries of the ECOWAS gave the new military leaders in Niger a week to hand over power and restore President Bazoum to office. The United States has affirmed its support for President Bazoum and stressed the importance of continuing his leadership in Niamey, stressing that it will continue to work to ensure the full restoration of constitutional order and democratic rule in Niger.
Source: Kuwait News Agency