Sierra Leone will abide by any decision taken by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Niger, Information Minister Cherno Bah has said.
Mr Bah was responding to questions from pressmen about the country’s official position on the recent development in Niger, where the military ousted the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum. The move has been met with condemnation from Western countries and some fellow West African nations.
Leaders of the 15-member West African bloc have threatened to intervene militarily if the army doesn’t restore the deposed president.
The decision was taken at an emergency meeting last week.
“The ECOWAS position was unanimously taken at a meeting that Sierra Leone was present, and even if we were not…as a member of ECOWAS, we are abiding by the decisions and conclusions of ECOWAS,” Bah said at the government’s weekly press conference on Tuesday.
While Guinea, which is also under military rule, has sided with the Nigerien junta, fellow Mano River Union members Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire have condemned the coup. Cote d’Ivoire went further to pledge its troops for deployment in the event of an ECOWAS decision to militarily intervene.
The Sierra Leone government had remained mute on the issue. Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) Major General Peter Kakowou Lavahun attended an ECOWAS military chiefs’ meeting in Abuja last week, which discussed a plan for military intervention.
Major General Lavahun was at Tuesday’s press conference at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, where he said that the decision on whether the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces personnel will deploy in Niger was entirely a political one, which would be decided by President Julius Maada Bio.
Major General Lavahun said Sierra Leone had since pledged a company of RSLAF to the ECOWAS Standby Force, through which it could participate in such a mission if the need arises. But he stressed that, that can only be determined at a level above his.
“Our pledge is still active. But if we have to get involved with anything, it has to come from the highest decision-making body…I don’t have the authority to say that I will go to Niger, unless I get the clear directive from the highest level,” he said.
ECOWAS leaders are scheduled for another meeting in Abuja on Thursday and President Bio, according to a statement from the presidency, departed Freetown on Wednesday for the Nigerian capital to attend the meeting.
