West African army chiefs will meet in Ghana’s capital Accra on Thursday and Friday to prepare for a possible military intervention to restore democratic order in Niger, a spokesperson for regional bloc ECOWAS said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Niger’s military leaders have announced plans to prosecute the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, for alleged “high treason” and “undermining the security of the country”, after toppling his democratically elected government in last month’s coup.

In a statement read out on national television, the army spokesman Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane said they had been gathering evidence against the deposed leader and what they claimed were his “local and foreign accomplices”.

Mr Bazoum and his family have been held in the basement of his palace in Niger’s capital Niamey since the military seized power in late July. 

Attempts to resolve the crisis through dialogue with the regional bloc Ecowas have so far been unsuccessful.