Nigeria has debunked social media reports that its embassy in Niger’s capital Niamey had been attacked amid the ongoing coup crisis in the region.
This comes after videos emerged on social media purportedly showing the Nigerian Embassy in Niamey on fire allegedly attacked by a mob angry at Nigerian government position on the coup.
It is ”not true. This is not Nigerian embassy,” the Nigerian ambassador to Niger, Mohammed Sani Usman, told TRT Afrika on Friday morning.
He said more security personnel have been deployed to protect the embassy and its staff and to ensure the safety of other Nigerians living in neighbouring Niger.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu is the current chairman of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS which has threatened to use force against the military junta in Niger in order to reverse last month’s coup.
This has angered the coup leaders and their supporters in the country. Niger and Nigeria have long historical, cultural and religious as well as economic ties.
The two countries share a border stretching more than 1000 kilometres. But the coup appears to be testing these age-long ties.
The junta has recalled Niger’s ambassadors to Nigeria, Togo, France and the US in response to the countries’ condemnation of the coup and the pressure they have been mounting for restoration of constitutional order.
There has been tension in West Africa in the wake of the coup on July 26, when soldiers from Niger’s Presidential Guard toppled and detained elected President Mohamed Bazoum.