The Wagner Group, the ubiquitous Russian mercenaries is said to be heading towards Niger Republic, where a military confrontation may soon ensue between the soldiers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the military leaders that has taken over the government of the country,
Presently the group, which has been operating in the Sahel region, has, according to a report by Al-Jazeera, camped in Mali one of the neighbours of the West African country, ready to move in to assist in warding off of the ECOWAS confrontation, even with talks of diplomatic rapprochement replacing hitherto tough stance of the sub-regional bloc, which had twice maintained that military option could be used to restore civilian rule in the country.
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Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Nigerian Head of State, and a special envoy of ECOWAS to broker a truce, had on Tuesday, reported that there a thaw in the hitherto icy situation, after meeting with the leadership of the junta, which sacked former Nigerien President, Mohamed Bazoum on July 23, which has in the main, refused to meet with anybody in the past, in the wake of the ECOWAS threat.
Under the leadership of Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, the Heads of Government of the sub-regional body, had on July 19, three days after the coup, ordered the new military authorities, led by Abdourahamane Tchiani not only to release Bazoum, who had been in detention, but restore him to power within seven days.
But instead of softening, even against a rash of other measures, such as economic blockade of the country, including the imposition of no-fly zone and the cutting of electricity, the military junta, retaliated by imposing a closure of its air space in addition with the threat to kill the ousted President at the slightest military attack from ECOWAS.
Latest report, which indicated that the Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, a few days after appearing in a video at a time he was believed to be in Congo, showed up in Mali, dressed in military fatigue, quoted him as claiming that the arrival of its team in Mali, was to assist the Mali military government to dislodge terrorists and “any other interest,” Al-Jazeera, reports.
Mali and Burkina Faso, also ruled by military junta, who have since declared their backing for the new government in their neighbouring country, had warned that any campaign by ECOWAS in Niger would amount to a declaration of war in the entire West Africa, while blame the Western nations, particularly France for the ugly situation in their countries.
Slamming ECOWAS and the African Union (AU), for imposing sanctions on Niger, they reportedly pledged to join the Nigerien military in resisting any form of force that might be used against the junta, which they followed up by moving troops to Niamey as a backup to the Niger military.
“The recent coup in Niger was carried out in close cooperation with Russian special services and Private Military Company (PMC) consultants,” claimed Russian military blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former press officer for Russia’s defence ministry, who uses the alias “Rybar.”
