NIAMEY
\nNiger\u2019s coup leaders accused the head of the United Nations on Friday of obstructing their participation in the body\u2019s General Assembly, saying it was \u201clikely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country.\u201d
\nRebel elite soldiers overthrew president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have since detained him at home with his family.
\nNegotiations to restore civilian rule have yet to bear fruit, with the junta demanding a three-year transition and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) calling for the immediate return of the democratically elected Bazoum.
\nThe coup has also been strongly criticized by Western governments and global bodies, such as the UN.
\nIn a news release read on public television, the military said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres \u201cwent astray in the exercise of his mission by obstructing Niger\u2019s full participation in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.\u201d
\nIt criticized \u201cthe perfidious actions\u201d of the UN leader, adding that they were \u201clikely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country.\u201d
\nGlobal leaders have descended on New York this week for the annual UN General Assembly.
\nBakary Yaou Sangare, who before the coup was Niger\u2019s ambassador to the UN and is now its foreign minister, was set to represent Niamey at the gathering.
\n\u201cMr Guterres not only refused to take note of the official list of delegates from Niger… but above all acceded to the fanciful request of the former minister of foreign affairs Hassoumi Massaoudou tending to revoke the permanent representative of Niger to the United Nations,\u201d the military statement said.
\nNiger \u201cforcefully rejects and denounces this clear interference by Mr.Guterres in the internal affairs of a sovereign state,\u201d it said.
\nGuterres\u2019 representatives have been contacted for comment.
\nOne of the world\u2019s poorest nations, Niger is the fourth country in West Africa to suffer a coup since 2020, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.
\nBazoum\u2019s removal heightened international worries over the Sahel region, which faces growing jihadist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group.
\nRegional sanctions since the coup mean food and medicines are scarce in landlocked Niger, prices are skyrocketing and there are blackouts after Nigeria cut electricity supplies.
\nSenegal\u2019s President Macky Sall said on Thursday a diplomatic solution in Niger was \u201cstill possible.\u201d
\n\u201cI hope that reason will ultimately prevail that it is still possible to move forward reasonably to a solution,\u201d Sall said in an interview with France\u2019s RFI and France 24 media outlets.
\nHe urged Niger\u2019s coup leaders \u201cto not push (us) to the final decision which would be a military intervention.\u201d
\nThe military leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger signed a mutual defense pact this month, saying they aimed to \u201cestablish an architecture of collective defense and mutual assistance for the benefit of our populations.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NIAMEY Niger\u2019s coup leaders accused the head of the United Nations on Friday of obstructing their participation in the body\u2019s General Assembly, saying it was \u201clikely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country.\u201d Rebel elite soldiers overthrew president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have since detained him at home with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-357990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n