Niger’s junta on Tuesday asked West Africa’s regional court to order the lifting of sanctions imposed on the country by its neighbors following a July coup in which the democratically elected president was deposed. The sanctions were the most stringent yet imposed by the regional bloc in an effort to stem the tide of coups in Africa’s volatile Sahel region. But they have had little or no impact on the ambition of the junta. Its lawyers argue that the sanctions have caused untold economic hardship in one of the world’s poorest countries.
