The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf, stressed on Friday in Cotonou (Benin) that the restoration of constitutional order in Niger is a “common objective” of Algeria and the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), both of which “are currently seeking a political solution” to the crisis in Niger.
“We are, within ECOWAS as in Algeria, on the same line of work that of coordinating our efforts as much as possible to achieve a common objective which is the restoration of constitutional order in Niger”, said declared to the press Attaf, on a working visit to Benin, charged by the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
“ECOWAS, like Algeria, is working to promote a peaceful solution to the crisis in Niger”, added Mr. Attaf, while reaffirming “with force that the crisis in Niger is a crisis resulting from an unconstitutional change” and which is “at the center of the concerns of ECOWAS and also those of Algeria”.
Attaf also reaffirmed that Algeria “has been systematically against foreign (military) interventions wherever they have occurred”, recalling the disastrous consequences of military interventions in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
For Algeria, the use of force “has always been an element of complication and not an element of solution”, he continued in this sense.
He also recalled in this context that the principle of refusal of unconstitutional changes “is particularly close to the heart of Algeria since it was at the African summit in Algiers in 1999 that this standard was laid down”, therefore, he said. he says, “Algeria considers itself in a certain way as the political and moral depositary of this norm”.
For his part, the Beninese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adjadi Bakari Olushegun, underlined “the convergence of points of view between Algeria and ECOWAS and therefore by extension between Algeria and Benin”, about the crisis in Niger. .
“We share this attachment to the conquest of power through the ballot box and not through arms”, he underlined before adding in the same context: “We also share the fact that we cannot allow in the region of non-constitutional military regimes”.
So, he continued, “we will work together so that the objectives set by Presidents Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Patrice Talon (of Benin) can materialize as quickly as possible with regard to Niger”.
