All of the member states of West African bloc ECOWAS except those under military rule and Cape Verde are ready to participate in a standby force that could intervene in Niger after a coup there late last month.
A senior West African official told army chiefs they stand ready for to intervene if diplomatic efforts to reverse the coup fail.
ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), which is made up of 15 member states, are holding a meeting with military chiefs in Ghana today as they work on creating a "standby force" that could potentially intervene and "restore constitutional order" in the troubled state.
Speaking at the meeting, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, accused the junta that deposed Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July of "playing cat-and-mouse" with the bloc by refusing to meet with envoys and seeking justifications for the takeover.
"The military and the civilian forces of West Africa are ready to answer to the call of duty," he told chiefs of defence staff from member states.
"If push comes to shove we are going into Niger with our own contingents and equipment and our own resources to make sure we restore constitutional order.
"If other democratic partners want to support us they are welcome," he said.
Musah strongly criticised the junta's announcement that it had elements to put Mr Bazoum, who is being detained, on trial for treason.
The United Nations, European Union and ECOWAS have all expressed concerns over the conditions of his detention.
"The irony of it is that somebody who is in a hostage situation himself ... is being charged with treason. When did he commit high treason is everybody’s guess," Mr Musah said.
The meeting of top officials over two days comes after fresh violence in the insurgent-hit country, with jihadists killing at least 17 soldiers in an ambush.
An army detachment was "the victim of a terrorist ambush near the town of Koutougou" in the Tillaberi region near Burkina Faso on Tuesday, Niger's defence ministry said.
In the heaviest losses since the 26 July coup, 20 additional soldiers were wounded, with six seriously injured.
Jihadist insurgencies have gripped Africa's Sahel region for more than a decade, breaking out in northern Mali in 2012 before spreading to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
The "three borders" area between the countries is regularly the scene of attacks by rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda.
The unrest across the region has killed thousands of troops, police officers and civilians, and forced millions to flee their homes.
Anger at the bloodshed has fuelled military coups in all three countries since 2020, with Niger the latest to fall when its elected president Mohamed Bazoum was ousted on 26 July.
The generals who have detained Mr Bazoum said "the deteriorating security situation" sparked the coup.
Analysts say an intervention to oust the coup's leaders would be militarily and politically risky and the bloc has said it prefers a diplomatic outcome.
ECOWAS issued a statement on Tuesday "strongly condemning" the latest attack, urging the military "to restore constitutional order in Niger to be able to focus (its) attention on security ... weaker since the attempted coup d'etat".
Talks have taken place this week in Addis Ababa among ECOWAS and Niger representatives under the patronage of the African Union.
The United States said yesterday that a new ambassador would soon head to Niger to help lead diplomacy aimed at reversing the coup.
Kathleen FitzGibbon, a career diplomat with extensive experience in Africa, will travel to Niamey despite the ordered departure of the embassy's non-emergency staff.
On Tuesday, Niger's military-appointed civilian prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, made an unannounced visit to neighbouring Chad, a key nation in the unstable Sahel but not a member of ECOWAS.
He met President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, offering what he described as a message of "good neighbourliness and good fraternity" from the head of Niger's regime.
"We are in a process of transition, we discussed the ins and outs and reiterated our availability to remain open and talk with all parties, but insist on our country's independence," Mr Zeine said.
Mr Bazoum's election in 2021 was a landmark in Niger's history, ushering in its first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.
He survived two attempted coups before being toppled in the country's fifth military takeover.
ECOWAS has applied a raft of trade and financial sanctions while France, Germany and the United States have suspended their aid programmes.
The measures are being applied to one of the poorest countries in the world, which regularly ranks bottom of the UN's Human Development Index.
The United Nations has warned that the crisis could significantly worsen food insecurity in the impoverished country, urging humanitarian exemptions to sanctions and border closures to avert catastrophe.
Niger is also facing a jihadist insurgency in its southeast from militants crossing from Nigeria, the location of a campaign initiated by Boko Haram in 2010.
