Following the military takeover of the government in the Republic of Niger, the Federal Government of Nigeria has cut off power supply to the country.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) through its Kano State sub-region’s Public Relations Officer, Adam Umar El-yandiski, confirmed the development on Thursday.
According to him, the connection that supplies power to Niger Republic comes directly from the national grid, therefore it has no connection with the supply of power to any region in the country.
The move was part of pressure on the country’s coup leaders.
Meanwhile, West Africa’s regional bloc on Wednesday said a military intervention in junta-ruled Niger was “the last resort”.
As ex-colonial power France sent in a fifth plane to evacuate its citizens, coup leader General Abdourahamane Tiani insisted they had no reason to quit the country.
Joining the departures, the United States ordered a partial evacuation of its embassy in Niamey.
West African military chiefs were meeting in Nigeria’s capital Abuja to frame a response while a delegation was in Niger for negotiations, a week after the coup that shook the fragile nation.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders on Sunday imposed trade and financial sanctions, giving the coup leaders a week to reinstate Niger’s democratically elected president or face the possible use of force.
According to the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, “(The) military option is the very last option on the table, the last resort, but we have to prepare for the eventuality.
An ECOWAS team headed by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar was in Niger for talks, he added at the start of a three-day meeting of the grouping’s military chiefs in Abuja.
West Africa’s pre-eminent military and economic power Nigeria, the current chair of ECOWAS, has vowed a firm line against coups that have proliferated across the region since 2020.
A source in Niger’s power company, Nigelec, said Nigeria had cut electricity to its neighbour as a result of the sanctions.
Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, depends on Nigeria for 70 percent of its power.
Junta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso have warned any military intervention in their neighbour would be tantamount to a “declaration of war” against them.
General Salifou Mody, one of the Niger coup leaders, arrived with a delegation in Mali’s capital Bamako on Wednesday. In an interview broadcast on Malian state television that evening, he stressed the need for cooperation between the two countries.
Russia on Wednesday called for “urgent national dialogue” in Niger and warned that threats of intervention “will not help ease tensions or calm the domestic situation.
Later Wednesday, the World Bank became the latest international organisation to announce it was suspending aid to Niger “other than private sector partnerships.”
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