ECOWAS force may take a month to invade Niger – Security analyst

The South Sudan Based Ghanaian security analyst Dr. Prosper Nii Nortey Addo says it might take a long while to put together any force to undertake a military intervention in Niger.

The ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs Peace and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musa indicates that though they will not issue timelines, plans are fully afoot for this action.

Dr. Nii Addo points out it will take the Commission at least one month even if ECOWAS has all the financial and material resources sufficiently available.

“Particularly in international relations, in diplomacy, in security it’s always the last resort. So intention has been declared but it does not mean that ECOWAS can go in a week.

“The use of force requires that there would be an approval from the ECOWAS heads of state based on the recommendations from the Chiefs of Defence Staff. They will have put troops on the ground and that will take for instance like a month to be able to do that if they have the well without going down that road,” Dr. Nortey Addo stated.

He continued: “So if that being the case they have the option to engage in diplomacy. For me it is to use all the tracks, use the formal, use the informal combine them if they will to make sure they get those who have done this coup who are willing to handover to get them start a transition to get them hand over power to the democratically elected government that will take some time.”