West Africa's main regional bloc ECOWAS has agreed a "D-day" for a possible military intervention should diplomatic efforts to reverse a coup there fail, a senior official said.
The date of the intervention was not disclosed but the ECOWAS force is ready to intervene "anytime the order is given", the official said on Friday following talks on the coup that ousted Mohamed Bazoum as president.
"We are ready to go anytime the order is given. The D-Day is also decided," ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Abdel-Fatau Musah said.
The decision was made during a two-day meeting of West African military chiefs held in Ghana's capital, Accra.
Last resort
ECOWAS previously said such action would be a last resort.
"As we speak we are still readying (a) mediation mission into the country, so we have not shut any door... (but) we are not going to engage in endless dialogue."
There was no immediate response from the junta.
Military officers deposed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have defied calls from the United Nations, ECOWAS and others to reinstate him, prompting the bloc to order a standby force to be assembled.
Fine-tuned
"We've already agreed and fine-tuned what will be required for the intervention," Musah said, declining to share how many troops would be deployed and other strategic details.
Most of its 15 member states are prepared to contribute to the joint force excepting those also under military rule - Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea - and Cape Verde, according to the bloc.
ECOWAS has taken a harder stance on the Niger coup, the wider region's seventh in three years, than it did on previous ones.
