Today is the deadline for Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso to leave the Economic Community of West African States, which has caused a great deal of concern in the region.
This is in preparation for Omar Touray, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, briefing the media today on the three Sahelian states’ departure.
ECOWAS suspended these three nations in January 2024 after their elected governments were overthrown by military coups.
Joel Ahofodji, the ECOWAS Commission’s Head of Communication, acknowledged that letters had been issued to the three nations’ junta-led governments asking for meetings.
ECOWAS has requested meetings in letters. We’re waiting on the nations’ formal reactions, Ahofodji stated.
He said, “No,” in response to the question of whether the countries had contacted him to reevaluate leaving.
This diplomatic endeavour coincides with ECOWAS’s readiness to authorise Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso’s withdrawal after the one-year notice period stipulated in Article 91 of the Revised ECOWAS Treaty has passed.
The six-month transitional phase, which ends on July 29, 2025, was established by the bloc to finalize the exit procedures and investigate possible reconciliation.
Dr. Omar Touray, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, stated the bloc’s ongoing commitment to work with the three nations during the transition at the end of its 66th Ordinary Session in December 2024.
Additionally, he affirmed that Senegalese President Bassirou Faye and Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé’s mediation mandates had been extended in order to continue communication with the departing countries.
The governments of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali have charged that ECOWAS has strayed from its original ideals and given in to outside pressure, especially with reference to sanctions put in place following the military takeovers.
In reaction, the three nations distanced themselves from longstanding Western allies like France and strengthened their connections with Russia, forming the Alliance of Sahel States, a new alliance centred on defence and mutual aid.
The ECOWAS Authority’s chair, President Bola Tinubu, reaffirmed the bloc’s resolve to seek diplomatic solutions while guaranteeing citizen protection.
With an increasing number of military takeovers in the region, ECOWAS, which was founded in 1975 to encourage economic integration throughout West Africa, has experienced more difficulties recently. These include the coups in Burkina Faso in 2022, Niger in 2023, and Mali in 2020 and 2021.
The chief of the presidential guard, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, proclaimed himself the new leader when the presidential guard in Niger overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum in a coup on July 26, 2023.
Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, the interim president of Burkina Faso, was overthrown in a coup on September 30, 2022. Damiba had only been in office for eight months.
On August 18, 2020, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta was overthrown in Mali due to a military mutiny.