Blinken Talks To Ousted Niger Pres As ECOWAS Threatens Military Action

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held a telephone call with ousted Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on the evening of 2 August, with a State Dep't readout saying that the "United States remains committed to the restoration of the democratically-elected government, consistent with the position of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union, and international partners." The Nigerien coup has gained significant international attention due to the seemingly close partnership between Bazoum's ousters in the presidential guard and Russia's Wagner mercenary group.

• While Niger and the wider Sahel region remains an extreme frontier market with little-to-no impact on global financial markets, instability in an areas that provides significant uranium supplies to European nuclear plants will continue to garner Western political attention.
• ECOWAS, nominally a regional trading bloc, issued a strong communique over the weekend, threatening that if its demands for Bazoum to be reinstallled were “not met within one week we will take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order. Such measures may include the use of force.”
• An ECOWAS intervention, led by Nigeria, could see Wagner forces deployed on the ground. One of the coup leaders General Salifou Mody met with the Mali's transitional President Assimi Goïta on 2 Aug. Mali is host to hundreds of Wagner mercenaries, and there is the prospect that the Nigerien coup leaders look to link up with these forces in the event of ECOWAS military action.