Military juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have reportedly withdrawn from the Economic Community of West African States bloc.
“By deciding to withdraw from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the military regimes of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger following coups d'état are taking the risk of compromising free movement and are pushing back the return of civilians to power. ECOWAS, a regional economic organization of fifteen countries, opposed the coups that successively brought the military to power in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, imposing heavy economic sanctions on Niger and Mali.
In August of 2023, it went so far as to threaten military intervention in Niger to restore constitutional order and free ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. Dialogue is practically broken between the organization and the regimes of Bamako, Ouagadougou and Niamey, who created the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) and accuse their neighbors of acting under the influence of ‘foreign powers’, in firstly France, a former colonial power in the region.
Elections were in theory planned in Mali and Burkina Faso in 2024, supposed to ensure the return to civilian government, a prerequisite required by ECOWAS to lift its sanctions and restore these countries to its decision-making bodies. But supporters of military regimes want to extend the duration of transitions, citing the anti-jihadist fight. Niger's new strongman, General Abourahamane Tiani, has not yet announced a transition timetable.
‘The AES States anticipated a debate that was to come, that of the end of transitions. The exit from ECOWAS seems to put this question on the back burner’, said Fahiraman Rodrigue Koné, Sahel specialist at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS). ‘Ensconced in the palaces and in front of the delights of power, they [the leaders of the AES countries] want to linger in presidential chairs’, criticizes Le Patriote, the daily newspaper of the ruling party in Côte d’Ivoire.
ECOWAS guarantees citizens of member countries the ability to travel without a visa and to establish themselves in member countries to work or reside there. The announcement of the Burkinabé, Nigerien and Malian withdrawal therefore arouses the concern of hundreds of thousands of nationals of these countries, individuals or traders.
The three landlocked countries of the Sahel and their main coastal economic partners such as Senegal and Ivory Coast are, however, members of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA, eight countries), which also guarantees in principle ‘freedom of movement and residence’ for West African nationals, as well as customs clearance of certain products and the harmonization of tariffs and standards, following the example of ECOWAS.
The consequences of a withdrawal could be more marked on the borders of Niger and Nigeria, countries not belonging to UEMOA. The West African economic giant represents more than half of ECOWAS' GDP and is Niger's leading economic partner in the region. The 1,500 kilometers of border which separate the two states are, however, poorly controlled and prey to attacks by armed groups. A significant portion of flows escape customs controls”. -Daily News
While the military leadership of the three nations has sought to combat the rise of militant groups in their countries and has joined the so-called “Alliance of Sahel States”, the withdrawal of Western forces and enforcement of economic sanctions on already unstable African economies have exacerbated concerns that armed insurgents could spread southwards towards the coastal ECOWAS member states such as Benin, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Togo.