FILE IMAGES OF more than a hundred trucks bound for Niger are blocked in Malanville, the border town between Benin and Niger, following the coup. The blockage has been going on for over a week, with Benin having closed its border with Niger in accordance with one of the decisions taken by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The West African bloc on Thursday approved the deployment of what it called a "standby force to restore constitutional order" in Niger following an emergency summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja. FILE IMAGES