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The Economic Community of West African States (Economy) has warned that the bloc is in danger of disintegrating and the security situation will further deteriorate after Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger formally announced their withdrawal from the European Union.
The chairman of the Economic Community of West African States Commission said the move was a major blow to the 50-year-old Economic Community of West African States and that if the decision was not changed, there could be serious consequences.
The move came after military leaders from the three countries said on Saturday they would “irreversibly” abandon the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to form their own alliance of nations.
The military came to power after a series of coups between 2020 and 2023, prompting the Economic Community of West African States to impose sanctions and demand a swift return to civilian rule.
ECOWAS even threatened to use military force, but ultimately backed down.
Some of the sanctions have now been lifted and the EU has been trying to persuade the military junta to drop its Brexit threats.
The Economic Community of West African States said the junta’s latest move could disrupt the free movement of people in the region and undermine efforts to combat regional security, especially in terms of intelligence sharing.
“Our region is in danger of disintegrating,” Omar Allieu Touré, president of the Economic Community of West African States Commission, warned on Sunday.
He will now be tasked with taking a “more forceful approach,” according to a statement issued on Monday, in which ECOWAS expressed “disappointment at the lack of progress” and pledged to “develop a forward-looking contingency plan.”
ECOWAS has appointed Senegalese President Basilou Diomaye Faye to mediate the crisis. His appointment was decided at an ECOWAS summit held in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Sunday.
Mr. Fahey has been touted as capable of acting as a driving force in a task that is expected to present significant challenges.
He is of the same generation as the three military rulers — much younger than other leaders in the region — and shares the junta’s criticism of the role of Western powers in the region, especially France, which once had colonial rule in all four countries.
All three military-dominated countries have expelled French soldiers who were helping fight the jihadist group there and have turned to Russia for military assistance.
In a related development, the German Defense Ministry announced that German troops will end their military operations in Niger at the end of next month following a breakdown in talks with the ruling military junta.
Previously, the United States had withdrawn its troops from an air force base in the capital Niamey, and the remaining troops were stationed only at a drone base in the central city of Agadez.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was reappointed as ECOWAS Chairman, stressed the need for a new partnership to overcome political, economic and security challenges in West Africa, particularly in the Sahel, a semi-arid region south of the Sahara Desert.
On Saturday, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger signed a treaty to form a new federation, the Alliance for the Sahel.
They agreed to establish common institutions and infrastructure to facilitate the free movement of citizens of the three countries.
Citizens of ECOWAS can live and work freely in all member states, but if the three countries leave the bloc, their citizens will lose that right unless a new agreement is reached.
West African leaders are concerned that jihadist groups could spread across the Sahel’s borders to neighboring countries — a scenario that could have adverse consequences for those countries’ citizens and for regional security.
The states ruled by military juntas are the areas worst affected by the Islamist insurgency, which was one of the reasons why the military seized power.
Adama Gaye, former ECOWAS communications director, told the BBC the junta’s alliance was a “very big blow” to ECOWAS because the three countries were founding members of the bloc, which was established in 1975.
However, he put some of the blame on ECOWAS, saying the group was pushing the military-led country to hold free and fair elections but that several other member states were not “real democracies” themselves.
“ECOWAS should try to avoid becoming an institutional laughing stock because how can you achieve this … when most other countries claim to uphold democratic demands but they themselves are not truly democratic,” he told BBC News Daily.
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