Niger's military junta is "eager" to return the country to civilian rule, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the executive-secretary of the Economic Community of West African States, has said.
Mr Chambas visited the West African nation to meet the leaders of a junta that took power on February 18th after they ousted President Mamadou Tandja and dissolved his government and the constitution. The remarks by Chambas, whose organisation groups 15 states, were broadcast today on SAFM, a Johannesburg-based broadcaster.
President Tandja and former prime minister Ali Badjo Gamatie are being detained by the junta at an undisclosed location, Colonel Djibrilla Hamidou Hima, a spokesman for the junta, told reporters yesterday in the capital, Niamey.
President Tandja is being kept in "very good conditions," Mr Hima said, without elaborating.
Last week's coup came after Mr Tandja, who has been in power since 1999, dissolved parliament in May and assumed emergency powers after the Constitutional Court rejected his call for a referendum to change the constitution and eliminate term limits.
In July, he disbanded the court after it ruled a third time against his plans to serve a third term. Civil society organisations in Niger want the junta to indict Mr Tandja on charges of "high treason and breaching national security," Marou Amadou, president of the United Front for the Safeguarding of Democratic Gains, said in a statement on Saturday.
The African Union suspended Niger from the continental body yesterday in response to the coup. Niger won't be able to participate in African Union activities until the restoration of constitutional order in the country, according to a statement from the AU's Peace and Security Council sent to reporters yesterday. AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra will meet with the coup leaders in Niamey, the statement said.
The junta, led by Salou Djibo, plans to hold elections after it stabilises the situation in Niger, Agence-France Presse reported yesterday, citing Mr Hima.
Bloomberg