Women, children and seniors in Niamey, Niger, took over roundabouts and road intersections on the way to the presidential palace Saturday night and Sunday morning in support of the Niger military junta and in defiance of international calls for the reinstatement of President Mohamed Bazoum.

They said ECOWAS forces would have to drive over their bodies to get to the presidential palace, hours before an ultimatum from the West Africa regional block for the country's coup leaders to reinstate the president expires. Defence chiefs of the Economic Community of West African States agreed on military action on July 30, including when and where to strike, if Bazoum was not released and reinstated by Sunday.

Blasting military tunes and tooting vuvuzelas, over 100 people set up a picket near an air base in Niamey pledging to offer non-violent resistance in support of the new military administration.

The capital was calm on Sunday morning, with citizens appearing undaunted by the threat of military intervention by ECOWAS. The junta has said it will not bow to external pressure to stand down following the July 26 power grab.

The seventh coup in West and Central Africa in three years has rocked the western Sahel region, one of the poorest in the world and an area that has strategic significance for Russia, China and the West.

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