The African Union (AU) convened discussions on Monday August 14, regarding the Niger crisis, while those who took power after the coup expressed both defiance and an inclination toward diplomatic avenues as a possible resolution.

The African Union (AU) on Monday held talks on the Niger crisis as the country’s post-coup rulers sounded defiance yet also pointed to diplomacy for a potential solution.

But talks at the AU’s headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa coincided with a flareup over threats by the regime to prosecute Niger’s deposed president.

President Mohamed Bazoum, whose election in 2021 was a landmark in the country’s troubled history, was toppled on July 26 by members of his presidential guard.

Seeking to stop the cascade, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) slapped sanctions on Niger and last week approved deployment of a “standby force to restore constitutional order.”

But uncertainties hang over any intervention, from operational feasibility to internal divisions within ECOWAS, and the bloc also says it wants a peaceful outcome.

On July 30, it issued a seven-day ultimatum to restore Bazoum or face the potential use of force, but the deadline expired without action.

Mixed signals have emerged from the regime as the crisis nears the end of its third week.

At the weekend, the coup leaders said they were open to a diplomatic push after their chief, General Abdourahamane Tiani, met with Nigerian religious mediators.

But on Sunday night, Niger’s rulers declared they had gathered sufficient evidence to prosecute Bazoum for “high treason and undermining internal and external security.”

The threat was angrily condemned by ECOWAS.

Bazoum, 63, and his family have been held at the president’s official residence since the coup, with international concern mounting over his conditions in detention.

On Monday, the military-appointed prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, a civilian, declared Niger would thwart ECOWAS’s sanctions threat.

The bloc has severed financial transactions and electricity supplies and closed borders with landlocked Niger, blocking much-needed imports to one of the world’s poorest countries.

The military leaders on Sunday said the sanctions make it hard for people to access medicines, food and electricity and describe the punishment as “illegal, inhumane and humiliating.”

Khalil Wakim, with AFP