Burkina, Mali, Niger announce exit from ECOWAS
All three were suspended from ECOWAS, with Niger and Mali facing severe sanctions.
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s military governments announced on Sunday their immediate exit from the West African grouping ECOWAS.
The leaders of the three Sahel states issued a statement stating that leaving the Economic Community of West African States was a “sovereign decision” that should be implemented “without delay.”
The regimes, which are struggling with Islamist violence and poverty, have had contentious relations with ECOWAS since coups occurred in Niger last July, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Mali in 2020.
All three were suspended from ECOWAS, with Niger and Mali facing severe sanctions.
In recent months, they have strengthened their views and formed a “Alliance of Sahel States”.
A French military retreat from the Sahel – Africa’s Sahara desert region — has raised concerns about conflicts spreading southward to Gulf of Guinea republics Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast.
The prime minister chosen by Niger’s military regime chastised ECOWAS on Thursday for “bad faith” after the bloc mainly avoided a planned meeting in Niamey.
Niger had hoped for an opportunity to resolve disagreements with ECOWAS member states, which had cold-shouldered Niamey by imposing severe economic and financial sanctions following the military coup that deposed elected President Mohamed Bazoum.