Niger is reopening its borders with several of its neighbours a week after a coup that has shocked West Africa's Sahel region, one of the poorest and most unstable in the world. "The land and air borders with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Libya and Chad are re-opened from today, August 1, 2023," junta spokesman Colonel Amadou Abdramane said in a televised address. The junta closed the borders last Wednesday when it announced it had removed democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum from power. But the juntas of neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali voiced their support for the coup's leaders and said any outside intervention to restore the ousted government would be seen as a declaration of war. That declaration by Mali and Burkina Faso on Monday night suggested a new alliance might be forming in opposition to the rest of the 15-member-state bloc.

Source: Libya Today August 02, 2023 16:41 UTC