Niamey (Niger), Oct 20 (AP) Niger's ruling junta said late Thursday it had thwarted an overnight attempt by deposed president Mohamed Bazoum to escape detention with his family nearly three months after he was detained in the wake of a military coup.

In a communique, Col Maj Amadou Abdramane said that Bazoum tried to reach a waiting vehicle at around 3 am that was to take him to the outskirts of the capital, Niamey, along with his family, two cooks and his security personnel.

Also Read | Power for Africa: The Boom of Nuclear Energy?.

From there, they were to be flown to Nigeria aboard “two helicopters belonging to a foreign power,” Abdramane said.

“This plan to destabilise our country was thwarted,” Abdramane said, adding that the main perpetrators had been arrested and an investigation has already been opened by the public prosecutor.

Also Read | US President Joe Biden Prepares Oval Office Speech on Wars in Israel and Ukraine, Asking Billions.

Bazoum has been under house arrest with his wife and son since being ousted in July, and has refused to resign. The junta had cut off his electricity and water.

The United States has formally declared that the ousting of Bazoum was a coup, suspending hundreds of millions of dollars in aid as well as military assistance and training.

Niger was seen by many in the West as the last country in Africa's Sahel region — the vast expanse south of the Sahara Desert — that could be partnered with to beat back a growing jihadi insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

In the wake of the July coup, however, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France was ending its military presence and would pull its ambassador out of the country. French troops already have been ousted by military regimes in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, which are both seeing a surge in attacks. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)