W. African delegation fails to resolve Niger crisis

NIAMEY - A West African delegation has failed to secure the return to power of Niger's elected government as the junta moved to break military cooperation with former colonial power France.

The ECOWAS regional bloc's team had arrived on Thursday in the capital Naimey "but did not spend the night" as scheduled, nor meet with coup leader Abdourahamane Tiani or detained President Mohamed Bazoum, a member of the delegation said on Friday.

Regional military chiefs are in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss the possibility of such an intervention.

Niger's junta warned it would meet force with force.

"Any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defence and Security Forces on one of (the bloc's) members," one of the putschists said in a statement read on national television.

This came with "the exception of suspended friendly countries", an allusion to Burkina Faso and Mali, neighbouring countries that have also fallen to military coups in recent years.

Those countries' juntas have warned any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a "declaration of war".

Bazoum, who has been held by the coup plotters with his family since his ouster, said Thursday that if the putsch proved successful, "it will have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world".

In a column in The Washington Post -- his first lengthy statement since his detention -- he called on "the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order".