France said on Saturday it will support efforts to overturn Niger’s military coup, a day after West Africa’s regional bloc said it had a plan for military intervention.

Niger’s military takeover, the seventh in West and Central Africa in three years, has rocked the western Sahel region, one of the poorest in the world with strategic significance to global powers.

Defence chiefs from Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have drawn up a plan for military action if the coup leaders do not reinstate elected President Mohamed Bazoum by Sunday, raising the spectre of further conflict in a region that is already battling a deadly Islamist insurgency.

The 59-year-old coup leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, who received some of his military training in France, said the junta will not back down.

‘In the fight against jihadist groups, Niger has no better allies than France and the US’

“France supports with firmness and determination the efforts of ECOWAS to defeat this coup attempt,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement after Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna met Niger Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou in Paris.

“The future of Niger and the stability of the entire region are at stake.”

France, the former colonial power, did not specify whether its backing would entail military support for an ECOWAS intervention in Niger.

ECOWAS has taken a tough stance on the takeover. Given its uranium and oil riches and pivotal role in the war with the militants, Niger holds importance for the United States, China, Europe and Russia.

Source: France 24