of partnership, some kind of buy in from those other countries in the region, just to make life harder for thejunta there. as well as that, i mean, what they might do is pursue some kind of diplomatic solution whereby they can arrange the release of the democratically elected president mohamed bazoum in exchange for him agreeing to some kind of democratic process whereby he stands down and there is an election because, ultimately, what we ve seen is that now, there is lots of popular support for what s gone on, and it s awkward for ecowas because then if they push and try and install reinstall the president who s now seemingly not so popular, then, it s hard for them. so, that might be another thing, some kind of diplomatic solution, in that respect. you mentioned that popular support for what s really been a coup. we ve seen demonstrations in the streets. and among those demonstrators, we ve seen pro russian sentiment russian flags being waved and chanting
they won t want to do that initially. what other options are on the table? what else could ecowas do to try to pressure this junta to return the control to the democratic leader? there are a number of levers that they can pull. one is to just make life as difficult as possible. so, for example, the giant southern neighbour of niger, nigeria, has turned off the lights. niger relies on it for much of its electricity, and they have turned off the main transmission lines. as well as that, we have seen an ecowas delegation go to neighbouring algeria and libya, so those are the northern borders of niger, to speak to them. so those ports are open. because at the moment, ecowas has imposed economic sanctions and closed access to ports to the south, but to the north, those access routes are still open, so they might want some kind of partnership, some kind of buy in from those
has turned off the lights. niger relies on it for much of its electricity, they have turned off the main transmission lines. as well as that, we have seen an ecowas delegation go to neighbouring algeria and libya, so those are the northern borders of niger, to speak to them. so those ports are open because at the moment, ecowas has imposed economic sanctions and closed access to ports to the south, but to the north, as access routes are still open, they might want some kind of partnership, some kind of buy in from those oher countries in the region, to make life harder for thejunta there. as well as that, what they might do is pursue some kind of diplomatic solution whereby they can arrange the release of the democratically elected president mohamed bazoum in exchange for him agreeing to some kind of democratic process whereby he stands down and there is an election.