News - World: Member of the Supreme Political Council, Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, considered that any military action that France plans in Niger is a reckless step. "By stopping at the developments in Niger and before that in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, we have followed the success of those national liberation revolutions in the face of French and Western hegemony," he said.

"Any military action France is planning is a reckless step, whether direct or supportive of a party, against the liberating popular will in all Africa," he added. He demanded that the society condemn any military step against African countries that did not do more than its natural right to independence after decades.

The Supreme Political Member also called on the US-Saudi aggression to take the lesson again and leave all Yemeni lands.

West African regional bloc ECOWAS said on Friday (4 August) its military chiefs had agreed a plan for a possible intervention in Niger, after it failed to secure a return to civilian rule there following last week’s coup.

“All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out, including the resources needed, and including the how and when we are going to deploy the force,” said ECOWAS commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah.

“We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them (the junta) that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done,” he added.

The chiefs of staff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) took the step after a delegation from the 15-nation bloc failed to broker a return to power of President Mohamed Bazoum, and the junta curtailed military cooperation with former colonial power France.

In a deepening of the regional crisis, the junta announced earlier on Friday it was scrapping military pacts between Niger and France, citing the former ruler’s “careless attitude and its reaction to the situation”.

Niger has played a key part in Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country respectively.

France rejected the coup leaders’ severing of military ties, insisting only the “legitimate” government could decide.

Niger’s ambassador to France said she did not recognise her sacking by the putschists and was loyal to Bazoum, feted in 2021 after winning an election that ushered in Niger’s first-ever transfer of power from one civilian government to another.