Written by: Chloe Baldauf; Edited by: Luke Wagner
Yesterday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held an “extraordinary ministerial session” to address the announced withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger from the long-standing regional bloc. President of the ECOWAS Commission H.E. Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, pleading for the group’s cohesion, asserted that “if there has ever been any time for ECOWAS to stay together, this is the time.”
During the meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, the Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel H.E. Leonardo Santos Simao emphasized the need for “a patient dialogue which is not obsessed to reach its end but to create space and enough time to continue to build a common future.” But Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger are not interested in waiting any longer.
On Sunday, the three states announced their immediate exit from the regional union through their national television channels. ECOWAS was formally notified of the three junta-led countries’ decision on Monday through written notices. The joint statement accused ECOWAS of being “under the influence of foreign powers” and “[moving] away from the ideals of its founding fathers and Pan-Africanism.”
This departure follows ECOWAS’s ongoing policy of trade and economic sanctions against the junta-led countries that had undergone significant regime change due to military coups. This past November, the three departing nations formed a new security alliance called the Alliance of the Sahel States that Niger’s junta leader General Abdourahmane Tchiani described as a “path for sovereignty” for the countries.
On Wednesday, Mali announced that it would not abide by the ECOWAS treaty’s one-year withdrawal notice. Mali’s foreign ministry wrote in an online statement that, because ECOWAS’s sanctions violated its own treaty, “Mali is no longer bound by the deadline constraints mentioned in Article 91 of the Revised Treaty.”
Amid an increasingly tense election crisis in Senegal and dwindling public trust in ECOWAS, the regional group of nearly fifty years faces an uncertain future. Concerns fester over how the split will affect Russia’s deepening military ties with Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger and the increased deployment of Russian Wagner Group troops in the region.