A top State Department official held what she described as “difficult” talks in the West African country of Niger on Monday in a bid to start negotiations with the military junta that last month deposed the elected president, a key U.S. ally in the region.

Acting deputy secretary of state Victoria Nuland visited the Nigerien capital, Niamey, to try to “get some negotiations going, and also to make absolutely clear what is at stake in our relationship and the economic and other kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored,” she told reporters in a phone briefing as she departed the country. “These conversations were extremely frank and at times quite difficult.”

Nuland’s visit, which reflected the importance of Niger to U.S. efforts at combating Islamist extremism in Africa, sought to counter political backsliding in the country. The ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, took office in 2021 in the first democratic transfer of power since Niger gained independence.