West Africa's ECOWAS rejects Niger junta's proposed three-year delay for elections

FILE PHOTO: Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner, briefs the press on plans to deploy its standby force to the Republic of Niger, in Accra, Ghana, August 18, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko/File Photo

ABUJA (Reuters) -West Africa's main regional bloc, ECOWAS, has rejected a proposal by Niger's military junta to hold elections within three years, extending a political impasse that could trigger a military intervention if no agreement is reached following a July coup.

ECOWAS and other international powers have been seeking diplomatic solutions to the July 26 putsch in Niger, the seventh in West and Central Africa in three years.