{"id":269,"date":"2024-01-28T22:53:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T22:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/?p=269"},"modified":"2024-01-28T22:53:26","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T22:53:26","slug":"mali-niger-burkina-faso-withdraw-from-ecowas-as-tension-deepens-ecowas-says-commission-yet-to-receive-formal-notification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/2024\/01\/28\/mali-niger-burkina-faso-withdraw-from-ecowas-as-tension-deepens-ecowas-says-commission-yet-to-receive-formal-notification\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso withdraw from ECOWAS as tension deepens … ECOWAS says, commission yet to receive formal notification"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n
Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso withdraw from ECOWAS as tension deepens<\/div>\n
… ECOWAS says, commission yet to receive formal notification<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
By Ahamefule Ihim<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Three West African nations \u2013 Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger \u2013 have quit the regional economic bloc known as Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The nations made the announcement in a joint communique released on Sunday by their respective military governments, accusing the bloc of \u201cinhumane\u201d sanctions to reverse the coups in their nations.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The juntas said in the statement read out on state television in all three countries that they have \u201cdecided in complete sovereignty on the immediate withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),\u201d alleging that the bloc has \u201cmoved away from the ideals of its founding fathers and pan-Africanism\u201d after nearly 50 years of its establishment.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cFurthermore, 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,\u201d their statements read.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Widely seen as West Africa\u2019s top political and regional authority, the 15-nation bloc of ECOWAS \u2014 formed in 1975 to \u201cpromote economic integration\u201d in member states \u2014 has struggled in recent years to reverse rampant coups.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In parts of West Africa, ECOWAS is fast losing its effectiveness and support among citizens, who see it as representing only the interests of the leaders and not that of the masses, said Oge Onubogu, director of the Africa Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center think tank.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It\u2019s not yet clear how that process of the countries\u2019 withdrawal from the bloc would be carried out. ECOWAS has not yet responded to the withdrawal as at the time of filing this report, though the bloc has said previously that it only recognizes democratic governments.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The bloc\u2019s regional court also ruled last year that juntas lack the power to act in place of elected governments on behalf of their nations.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Sunday\u2019s announcement is the latest twist in a series of events that have deepened political tension in West Africa since it experienced its latest of a string of coups \u2014 in Niger \u2014 last year. It also comes as the three nations have formed a security alliance after severing military ties with France and other European nations and turning to Russia for support.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The joint statement accused ECOWAS of failing to assist those three countries in fighting \u201cexistential\u201d threats like terrorism \u2014 the common reason cited by their militaries for deposing their democratically elected governments.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cWhen these States decided to take their destiny into their own hands, it (ECOWAS) adopted an irrational and unacceptable posture in imposing illegal, illegitimate, inhumane and irresponsible sanctions in violation of its own texts,\u201d the statement noted.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Rather than improve their situations, the juntas said the ECOWAS sanctions have \u201cfurther weakened populations already bruised by years of violence.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Last week\u2019s botched meeting between Niger and ECOWAS \u2014 which said its delegation couldn\u2019t visit Niger because of a flight problem \u2014 was seen by Niger\u2019s junta as an opportunity to blame the bloc for how it has responded to the coup there, according to Cheta Nwanze, an analyst at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence geopolitical research firm.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cThis withdrawal looks like an even more diminishing influence of the two traditional superpowers in West Africa \u2014 France and Nigeria,\u201d Nwanze said.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
However, the cable reports that ECOWAS\u00a0 reacting to the decision had\u00a0 expressed surprise about the development, saying it received no prior notification of the countries\u2019 position.<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cThe attention of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Commission) has been drawn to a statement broadcast on the National Televisions of Mali and Niger announcing the decision of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to withdraw from ECOWAS,\u201d the bloc said in a statement.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cThe ECOWAS Commission is yet to receive any direct formal notification from the three Member States about their intention to withdraw from the Community.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cThe ECOWAS Commission, as directed by the Authority of Heads of State and Government, has been working assiduously with these countries for the restoration of constitutional order.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cBurkina Faso, Niger, and Mali remain important members of the Community and the Authority remains committed to finding a negotiated solution to the political impasse.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
ECOWAS said it would make further pronouncements as the situation evolves.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Sources: skyton, the cable<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
[<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso withdraw from ECOWAS as tension deepens … ECOWAS says, commission yet to receive formal notification By Ahamefule Ihim Three West African nations \u2013 Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger \u2013 have quit the regional economic bloc known as Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The nations made the announcement in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}