ECOWAS loses three members. The military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger want to leave. The organization still doesn't know anything about it.

Seats are available at the Ecowas table: file image of the Defense Ministers meeting in August 2023 in Accra, Ghana

COTONOU taz | It is causing a stir in West Africa: the countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, where military governments are in power, want to leave the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS) (currently has 15 member states) with immediate effect. The regional organization, founded 49 years ago, would be “under the influence of foreign powers” ​​and would betray its founding principles. This is a threat to Member States, according to a joint press release. For Mali, it was read on state television by Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization of the interim government.

He goes on to say that the organization did not support Mali in the fight against terrorist groups in 2012. What happened at that time is considered the trigger for the serious security crisis in the Sahel. Due to the expansion of terrorist movements linked to the “Islamic State” (IS) and Al Qaeda, more than three million people are fleeing. However, violence against the civilian population also comes from state security forces.

In their declaration, the Heads of State and Government of the three Sahel States also stressed that they wanted to assume responsibility for history and respond to the expectations, concerns and desires of the population. The choice of words is reminiscent of the Burkinabe national hero Thomas Sankara, highly revered in the region and who took power after a coup in 1983 and was assassinated in October 1987. In his famous speech to the United Nations, he also stressed that Burkina Faso wanted to take its destiny into its own hands in the future.

On the X short message service, Ecowas announced that it had not yet been formally informed about the withdrawal. Atiku Abubakar, who came second to Bola Tinubu in Nigeria's presidential election last year, called the development “worrying.” It is a serious diplomatic rupture.

Nigerian President Tinubu, who currently chairs the organisation, has yet to comment. It is privately located in France. Other heads of state and government are yet to comment on the development.

Mali ignored ECOWAS demands

With the announcement, tensions between the regional organization and the three Sahel states reach a new high. Since the first coup in Mali in August 2020, Ecowas has called for elections and the return of civilian government. Mali ignored this several times and several times suspended the calendars that had been drawn up for this purpose. The sanctions imposed two years ago did not change this situation, but instead fueled the population's anger against Ecowas. The mediations failed.

The regional bloc became unusually clear after the coup in Niger in July 2023. Tinubu threatened military intervention, but this never happened. However, economic sanctions remain in place, including a closed border with neighboring Benin to the south. Food prices have increased. Aid organizations have warned several times in recent months that medical products are also in short supply and becoming more expensive because supplies are not reaching the country.

However, criticism of the regional association, which once sought to simplify economic relations, is not new. For example, activists criticized the organization for allowing constitutional changes that would allow presidents to stay in power longer than intended. This affected Ivory Coast and Togo.

Ecowas is considered the strongest regional organization on the continent. Fundamental is the protocol on the free movement of persons of 1979. It regulates that ECOWAS residents do not need a passport within the region, can stay in all Member States for up to 90 days without a visa and can freely choose their place of residence.

So far there has only been one departure: Mauritania, a founding member, left the organization in 2000. However, since 2019 a cooperation agreement has been in force again. One of the objectives of ECOWAS is to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism.