Ouagadougou: All suspended from the various organs of the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have just cut short their release. gap by purely and simply withdrawing from this sub-regional institution.

Since May 2021 for Mali, January 2022 for Burkina and July 2023 for Niger, these Sahel countries have been excluded from ECOWAS bodies. The efforts they have made to meet the demands of ECOWAS, in a context of fragility marked by terrorist attacks, are far from satisfying the Conference of Heads of State, the supreme body of the sub-regional institution.

This January 28, 2024, therefore, their decision fell like a chopper, ‘with immediate effect’. The three members of the Alliance of Sahel States have started a counter-fire to put an end to the sanctions imposed on them by ECOWAS.

In the joint communiqué announcing their withdrawal, the three countries say they are disappointed and bitterly regret that ECOWAS has moved so far from the ideals of the founding fathers.

‘In a
ddition, ECOWAS, under the influence of foreign powers, betraying its founding principles, has become a threat to its member states and its populations whose happiness it is supposed to ensure,’ they add.

When it was created in May 1975, ECOWAS presented itself as a space for promoting economic integration among its members.

In the process, the heads of state signed a non-aggression protocol of understanding in 1978 and later another protocol of assistance in matters of defense.

This vision is today a far cry from the heavy punitive sanctions decided in the meantime against Mali and which are still in force against Niger.

In addition to economic and political sanctions, the authority of the ECOWAS heads of state had taken the decision to attack Niger with weapons in order to dethrone General Abourahamane having overthrown Mohamed Bazoum from the presidency.

First Burkina Faso, then Mali, having warned that they would wage war alongside Niger, ECOWAS ended up abandoning the military solution without rulin
g it out publicly.

A few days ago, on January 25, an ECOWAS mediation mission to Niamey to lead to the lifting of economic sanctions against Niger was postponed, the institution’s emissaries not having made the trip, the exception of Togo.

By maintaining its sanctions as long as possible and conditioning their lifting on the return of these countries to a constitutional order of its liking, ECOWAS is putting democracy issues to the forefront to the detriment of economic development

Source: Burkina Information Agency