The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has urged the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to go ahead with its planned use of force to dislodge the coupists in Niger Republic.
Interim USIP Country Director Nigeria, Dr. Chris Kwaja stated this in a virtual news conference on Friday, in Abuja.
He said, “We’ve seen the communique issued by ECOWAS a few days ago to the coupists in Niger, telling them to return the ousted president, and have given an ultimatum. So we are waiting to see what ECOWAS will do at the end of the ultimatum”.
“I think if ECOWAS is able to garner the political muscles to bite hard at this time, then it will be sending a very strong signal to whoever is outside the country that is supporting and masterminding what we are seeing”, he added.
Kwaja said that the activities of mercenaries in the West African region were not a good sign for the region, adding that by design, mercenaries were profit makers. He further said that where such a framework was not in place, the region would remain unstable and be constantly drawn back to the 90s.
He said that the region would be seen as fragile and mercenaries would continue to take advantage of it to make profits at the expense of the lives of Africans. This, he said, would give room for terrorist groups and other sensational groups to invade the region, which was a major danger sign for countries in the region”, he said.
