THE crisis in Niger deepened today as some of the country’s neighbours lined up in support of the military group that staged a coup last Wednesday.

A joint statement from the military-controlled governments of Burkina Faso and Mali warned that “any military intervention against Niger would be tantamount to a declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali.”

The statement read by Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, Mali’s state minister for territorial administration and decentralisation, said the “disastrous consequences of a military intervention in Niger” would end up destabilising the whole region.