A senior US state department official was on Monday denied a meeting with the military junta leader in Niger during a visit to the west African country to warn that Washington would cut aid if democratic order were not restored.
Victoria Nuland, the US’s acting deputy secretary of state, was not able to talk to General Abdourahmane Tchiani, who was installed as head of state after a coup last month, and spoke instead to General Moussa Salaou Barmou, his declared chief of defence and head of Niger’s special forces.
Nuland said she made “absolutely clear what is at stake in our relationship and the economic and other kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored”.