Military chiefs from West African states on Thursday began two days of discussions in Ghana's capital of Accra about the ongoing crisis in Niger.

West African regional bloc ECOWAS said the meeting was being held "to finalize plans for the deployment of the Standby Force."

"Democracy is what we stand for and it's what we encourage," Nigeria's Chief of Defense Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, told the meeting. 

"The focus of our gathering is not simply to react to events, but to proactively chart a course that results in peace and promotes stability," he added.

The talks come after a deadline for mutinous soldiers to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum passed earlier this month.

Bazoum has been under house arrest since the July 26 coup, which saw members of Niger's presidential guard, headed by Abdourahmane Tchiani, seize power.

The military regime announced on Monday that it would bring Bazoum to trial on charges of high treason. The United Nations and ECOWAS condemned the decision to try Bazoum. 

Last week, ECOWAS said it had ordered the activation of its "standby force" in order to "restore constitutional order in Niger."

Concern that intervention may lead to wider conflict

Commentators have expressed concern that the ultimatum by ECOWAS for the military junta to release Bazoum or face military intervention could plunge the wider region into conflict.

"ECOWAS has few good options... particularly as the [junta] seems unwilling for the moment to cede to outside pressure," Andrew Lebovich, a research fellow with Dutch think tank the Clingendael Institute, told the Associated Press (AP) news agency.

"An intervention could backfire and damage the organization in numerous ways, while a failure to extract major concessions from the [junta] could weaken the organization politically at an already fragile time," he added.

Any decision to resort to a military intervention could still be overruled by the African Union's Peace and Security Council, which authorizes the mounting and deployment of peace support missions.

Neighbors warn against military intervention

Niger's neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, both ruled by military governments that seized power in coups, say an armed intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a declaration of war on their countries.

France and the United States have around 2,500 military personnel in the country who have been involved in training and, in the case of France, conducting joint operations against an Islamist insurgency.

Since the coup, both countries have suspended military operations, which some believe is spurring on jihadi attacks.

Niger's Defense Ministry, whose new minister was recently appointed by the junta, said on Tuesday that at least 17 Nigerien soldiers were killed and nearly two dozen wounded in the Tillaberi region. The attack is said to be the biggest by insurgents in six months.

Germany supports regional efforts

Meanwhile, the German Foreign Ministry said that Berlin supports the regional efforts to resolve the crisis in Niger. "Our goal is to restore the constitutional order," it said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Germany also wants the European Union to impose sanctions on the leaders of last month's military coup in Niger, the ministry said.

"After suspending development and security cooperation, we now want to launch sanctions in the EU against the putschists," the ministry posted on X.

German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, who met the ECOWAS leadership during her visit to Nigeria this week, told DW that support for "a solution from within the region" should continue when it comes to the Niger crisis.

The minister also stressed the importance of the resilience of societies in the Sahel region. "We are very much on the way here to build up a social security system for the people, so that when something happens, when a crisis comes, there is no immediate threat of hunger, poverty and the worst things," she said.

Referring to the increasing influence of Russia and China in the region, Schulze added: "We have to show that we are better."

kb,dh/sms (AP, Reuters, AFP)