Niger coup leaders say they will prosecute President Bazoum for high treason

Niger's political scene became more complex on Wednesday as former rebel Rhissa Ag Boula announced a new Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) aimed at reinstating deposed Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum.

Niger has ignored a seven-day deadline to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The bloc prepares to hold a special summit on Thursday. What steps can it now realistically take?

Ahead of an ECOWAS summit debating a response to the Niger coup, Germany has called for the return to "constitutional order." Meanwhile, ousted president Bazoum's house arrest conditions are said to be "deteriorating."

The coup in Niger has people asking about potential links to Russia. Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso have turned to the Kremlin after severing ties with France. Is Moscow behind Niger's coup?

West African leaders have agreed to keep all options, including military force, open to restore civilian rule in Niger. At a crisis ECOWAS summit in neighboring Nigeria, they ordered the deployment of a standby force. However, there are no signs Niger's junta will hand back power.

'Our leaders can afford to recruit even media executives to do even dirty jobs for them. They can pay hack writers to publish what they would like to read. They now pay dubious ‘media entrepreneurs’ to monitor adversarial reports about them'. On Inside Stuff with Martins Oloja, the multi-award-winning journalist and Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian this week, talks about how leaders recruit the media to monitor editorials on their activities.

International organizations and leaders had condemned the conditions of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, who was been held in his official residence by Niger's junta. Meanwhile, ECOWAS deferred a Saturday meeting.

Niger's Junta said on Sunday they had gathered enough evidence to prosecute ousted President Mohamed Bazoum for high treason following his imprisonment last month and Niger's military subsequent dissolving of the elected government.

Niger's coup leaders say they will prosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for "high treason." Earlier, they reportedly said they were willing to negotiate with the West African bloc ECOWAS.

Defense chiefs from members of the ECOWAS regional bloc meet in Accra to discuss the crisis in Niger. Last week the body activated a "standby force" potentially to intervene in Niger.

ECOWAS sanctions on Niger appear to be a double-edged sword. Many Nigerians living near the border with Niger, which Nigeria shut after the coup, say the economic and humanitarian impacts are enormous.

The EU foreign ministers met to discuss ways to help West Africa's ECOWAS regional group handle the military takeover in Niger. The meeting came the junta stripped the French ambassador of diplomatic immunity.