Leaders of the Niger coup have pointedly blamed the United Nations’ top official, suggesting that their obstruction from the General Assembly could adversely impact crisis resolution endeavours in our nation.
President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted by elite rebel soldiers on July 26, and he, along with his family, has been under house arrest since.
Negotiations geared toward reestablishing civilian rule have hit an impasse, as the junta stands firm on a three-year transition while the Economic Community of West African States presses for the immediate return of democratically elected President Bazoum.
The coup has received strong condemnation from Western governments and international organisations like the UN, which are currently convening their General Assembly of world leaders in New York this week.
In a news release read on public television, the military said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ‘went astray in the exercise of his mission by obstructing Niger’s full participation in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly’.
Read also: UN Engages Niger Coup Leaders Due To Access Restrictions
It criticised ‘the perfidious actions’ of the UN leader, adding that they were ‘likely to undermine any effort to end the crisis in our country’.
After the coup, Bakary Yaou Sangare, who previously served as Niger’s ambassador to the UN, assumed the role of foreign minister and was picked by the new leadership to represent them at the gathering.
An unnamed diplomatic source has said that the previously ousted government has filed an application to serve as the representation for Niamey.
‘In case of competing credentials from a Member State the secretary-general defers the matter to the Credentials Committee of the General Assembly who will deliberate on the matter,’ Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
‘The secretary-general does not decide.’
No Niger representative has been added to the speakers’ list because the committee’s meeting is set to take place at a later time.
Niger ‘forcefully rejects and denounces this clear interference by Mr Guterres in the internal affairs of a sovereign state’, the junta said.