After Niger coup: Junta lifts airspace closure India could soon rename itself

The junta in Niger, in power since a military coup, has reopened the airspace over the country. This applies immediately to civil and commercial flights, the military rulers announced on Monday.

The military junta closed the airspace a few days after the coup on July 26, partly to prevent the West African state organization Ecowas from intervening.

Ecowas had activated a riot force in response to the coup and threatened violence unless democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was reinstated and constitutional order restored. However, this has not happened to date. Instead, Niger’s new ruler, Abdourahamane Tiani, has created an interim government that will remain in office for “no more than three years”.

Niger, a Sahel country with about 26 million inhabitants and one of the poorest populations in the world, was one of the last democratic partners of the US and European states in the Sahel zone on the southern edge of the Sahara before the coup.

The European Union is now preparing sanctions against the coups d’état in West Africa Niger. According to diplomats in Brussels, the sanctions are mainly aimed at senior representatives of the military junta, which has been in power since a coup. Moreover, organizations that support the putschists can also be targeted. (sda/dpa)