PRETORIA, August 29. /TASS/. Nigeria plans to relax the sanctions that were imposed earlier on Niger to ease their adverse effect on the country's residents, said Ajuri Ngelale, a special adviser to the Nigerian president on media.

"We will relax sanctions as much as possible to minimize the impact on Niger's civilian population," he said in an interview with Nigerian newspaper the Independent.

The decision to impose economic and trade sanctions on Niger was taken at the ECOWAS summit on July 30. Nigeria cut off electricity supplies to the country from August 1, among other things. Nigerien military commander Abdourahmane Tchiani criticized the sanctions as "illegal and inhumane." Earlier, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 4.3 million people in Niger are in need of humanitarian assistance, with 3.3 million, or more than 10% of the country's population, facing severe food shortages. The vast majority of those in need are women and children.

In late July, a group of military rebels in Niger announced the ouster of President Mohamed Bazoum. They then established the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, headed by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, to run the country. Leaders of the ECOWAS countries slapped harsh sanctions on Niger and demanded that the mutinous soldier release Bazoum, or face the use of force.