Rhino – Agencies: The West African Regional Bloc (ECOWAS) said it would lift tough sanctions on Niger as it seeks a new strategy to dissuade three junta led countries from withdrawing from the political and economic union, a move that threatens regional integration.
After closed door talks, ECOWAS said it had decided to lift sanctions on Niger including closing the border, freezing central bank assets and suspending business transactions with immediate effect, saying in a statement it had been done on humanitarian grounds. In its statement, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) reiterated its call for the release of Mohamed Bazoum and asked the military junta to provide an “acceptable timeline for the transition.”
It also said it had lifted some sanctions against Guinea led by the junta, which did not say it wanted to leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), but like other junta countries had not adhered to a timetable for a return to democratic rule. Some targeted sanctions and political sanctions were still imposed on Niger without going into details, said Omar Touray, head of the ECOWAS Commission. The statement added that the bloc “also urges countries to reconsider the decision in light of the benefits enjoyed by ECOWAS member states and their citizens in society.”
Earlier, ECOWAS president Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the bloc should reconsider its strategy in its attempt to persuade countries to restore constitutional order, urging Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea to “not consider our organization as an enemy.”
The move will be seen as a gesture of appeasement as ECOWAS tries to persuade the three states to stay in the nearly 50 years old alliance, and their planned exit will lead to a chaotic dilemma of trade and service flows in the bloc, worth about $150 billion a year.
ECOWAS leaders set out to address the political crisis in the coup hit region that worsened in January with the decision of Niger and Burkina Faso under military rule and Mali’s decision to exit the 15-member bloc.
ECOWAS closed the border and cracked down on Niger last year after President Mohamed Bazom’s soldiers were arrested on July 26 and formed a transitional government, one of a recent series of military coups that exposed the bloc’s inability to stop the democratic decline. The sanctions have forced Niger, already one of the poorest countries in the world, to cut spending and default on debts worth more than $500 million.
The coup in Niger followed two coups in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso over the past three years, leaving a vast swath of territory in the hands of military governments that have also moved to distance themselves from France, the former colonizer, and other Western allies, and the military also seized power in Guinea in 2021. ECOWAS also imposed sanctions on Mali in a bid to speed up its return to constitutional order, despite being lifted in 2022.
The three countries described the ECOWAS sanctions strategy as illegal and a reason for their decision to leave the bloc immediately without complying with the usual withdrawal conditions.
The three countries began cooperating under an agreement known as the Alliance of Sahel States and sought to form a confederation, although it is not clear how close they planned to align political, economic and security interests while struggling to contain an armed insurgency.
