EU ministers to tackle Niger coup response at Spain meeting

European Union foreign ministers meet in Spain on Thursday to discuss their response to last month’s coup in Niger – including possible sanctions – as
they also consider news of military officers declaring they have seized power in Gabon.
The instability in the West and Central African countries will be a major theme of the informal gathering in the medieval city of Toledo, along with discussions on the war in Ukraine with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Hassoumi Massoudou, the foreign minister of Niger’s ousted government, and Omar Touray, the head of the commission of West Africa’s main regional bloc ECOWAS, will attend the talks.
“It is clear that the coup in Niger is opening a new era of instability in a region which was already very fragile, and this will undermine the stability of the region,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Toledo on Wednesday.