NIAMEY - France and the United States are at loggerheads over the best response to the coup in Niger that ousted the now-deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, writes Nahal Toosi in Politico.
While France favors military intervention by the West African regional bloc Ecowas, the United States sent Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland to engage the junta leadership on August 7, insisting there’s still a negotiated way to restore democracy.
The tension reveals “a shifting balance of power in the region and underscores the differences between Paris and Washington’s interests” in Niger.
