Hundreds of pro-coup protesters demonstrated in front of a French army base in Niger’s capital, Niamey, on Friday, as West Africa’s regional body made moves toward a possible military intervention to restore civilian rule.
ECOWAS — the Economic Community of West African States — ordered the activation of a standby force on Thursday, two weeks after generals ousted President Mohamed Bazoum in the seventh coup in West and Central Africa in three years.
The proposed mission has raised the spectre of deepening conflict in a strategically important region where Western powers have lost sway during the spate of coups and where Russian influence appears to be
