Zara Kada serves up dishes of rice, fish and vegetables in plastic colosseums to her guests sitting on rustic benches in the capital of Niger’s capital, Niamey. This business is a lifeline for the widowed ma – of- seven but it’s under trouble as food prices have shot up after profitable clearances were assessed after the military seized power.

” Not only has the price of rice increased but also that of cooking oil painting oil. It’s an increase of 2,500 F CFA($ 4£ 3) in just one week, ” she says standing by her small food cell. ” This causes us problems because if I prepare the rice and I can’t sell it, there will be no earnings, only losses. ”

Two weeks agone
Niger’s army deposed the country’s democratically tagged President, Mohamed Bazoum, attracting wide international condemnation.

The Economic Community of West African States( Ecowas) is determined to stop yet another military appropriation in the region- the sixth in just three times.

” We ’re drawing the line in the sand, ” Ecowas security chief Abdel Fatau Musah tells the BBC.

” There’s a contagion and if we do n’t mightily stop what has happened there, also which country is coming? ” he asks.

So Ecowas has replied snappily, by cutting off financial deals, electricity supplies and, in a move particularly painful for landlocked Niger, closed its land borders, blocking vital senses.

Now, after a alternate emergency peak on the extremity in Niger, indigenous heads of state have ordered the activation of a standby military force, ready to incursion the country should the military continue their hold on power.