The President of Côte d’Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara, has stated that the that ousted Niger president Mohamed Bazoum two weeks ago, had grown beyond Nigeria and Niger and was purely now an ECOWAS affair.
“ECOWAS cannot accept this. This is not a matter of Nigeria against Niger. Not at all,” he said to reporters in Abuja.
“The decision that we have made today — and I hope that it will be implemented immediately — is a decision of ECOWAS.”
According to the Ivorian president, all the heads of state in the West African regional bloc think they have tried dialogue with the Niger coup plotters.
“I personally consider this as a terrorist act and we cannot let this continue. We have to act. The decision of Cote d’Ivoire, which has been endorsed by all of the heads of state and that we have been able to tell these putschists, is that their place is in the barracks,” he added.
