After a crisis summit in Nigeria, a bloc of West African leaders threatened military action against Niger, where soldiers seized power in a coup on Wednesday, unless the country’s democratically elected president is restored to office within a week.
The new junta belt up, baring that it was going nowhere, and it warned forcefully against any foreign military intervention.
The demand, by the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, echoed earlier calls by the U.S. and France, major security allies of Niger, who warned they would cut aid and military ties worth hundreds of millions of dollars unless the deposed leader, Mohamed Bazoum, was reinstated.