The Nkrumahist movement, the Economic Fighters League, has joined the growing chorus of individuals and organizations calling on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to reconsider its decision to intervene in the Niger crisis by deploying troops to the troubled country.
The movement condemned the alleged interference by ECOWAS and France in Niger.
General Abdourahmane Sani Issoufou Tchiani, leader of the presidential guard, led a group of soldiers to oust President Mohamed Bazoum on July 20. Gen. Tchiani declared himself Niger’s new ruler on July 26.
The Economic Fighters League, in a statement, accused ECOWAS of doing the bidding of Western and European powers in its standby force order.
The group called on all Africans to join the demand for the use of dialogue to restore democracy in Niger.
Below is the Fighters full statement.
DOWN WITH FRENCH IMPERIALISM AND ITS PUPPETS
The Economic Fighters League has observed with disgust the series of events taken by various stakeholders of neocolonialism following the military coup in Niger. We must condemn in no uncertain terms the attempts by France to maintain a stranglehold on African people, land and resources, and the shameful decision made by ECOWAS to mobilise troops against Niger.
Every day the African political elite shower us with contempt. Under neoliberal misrule, they force us to exist under systems that are killing us. They sell our people, our resources, our land without shame, operating in service of those who would destroy us.
Now the leaders of an ECOWAS that has been happy to remain impotent through multiple humanitarian crises across the region are looking to mobilise West African soldiers against their own brothers and sisters in an effort to return Niger to the oppression to which it is resisting and to ensure that imperialist France is able to keep taking Niger’s uranium for next to nothing.
The France to which ECOWAS is so quick to show allegiance has for decades been content to assassinate and manipulate from the shadows whilst issuing false utterances of disapproval at the excesses of the greedy puppet politicians that they themselves install and protect.
The wave of military uprisings in recent years have dismantled four French neocolonies in Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso and now Niger and are forcing France to reveal her true exploitative and destructive interests in an effort to seize control over a volatile situation that is the outcome of and a response to their continued exploitation and oppression.
We recognise that most military forces in our history have operated in allegiance to colonising entities and their local puppets, merely serving battling entities within the ruling class, and do not believe that military coups are ultimately in service of the people. The great Thomas Sankara was one of the few military leaders who truly was for the People, and the French response was to assassinate him.
From Sankara we learned that the military can also produce progressive leaders to reclaim power for the People and positively transform their material realities. With this in mind, we urge African coup leaders in Mali, Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso to quickly follow in his footsteps. We support your struggle ONLY so far as your efforts remain towards the liberation of our brothers and sisters from imperialist exploitation and subjugation, also using this opportunity to bring about the united and prosperous Africa envisioned by Kwame Nkrumah.
The interference of foreign entities must stop. It is critical that the sovereignty of Africans in Niger (and Burkina Faso, Benin and Mali) not be compromised as they navigate and negotiate this development, especially by foreign entities and their local ‘partners’.
France and her allies within ECOWAS must stand down or be stopped, and Africans must instead stand with the People of Niger, their needs, their movements as they navigate this process.
Do not allow European interests to isolate us from a potential sunrise on the African horizon, which with the right support could prove to be a great step towards our total political and economic liberation.
Down with French Imperialism!
POWER TO THE PEOPLE OF BURKINA FASO, BENIN, MALI AND NIGER!
Africa MUST unite!
Revolutionary Regards,