The leaving of the three member states from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) — a regional alliance that promotes economic integration among 15 West African countries and plays a vital role in bringing peace to the region, along with addressing various political problems — has led to concerns. According to multiple sources including the British Broadcasting Corporation and Cable News Network, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso formally left the vital alliance in January this year after a yearlong process. This is surely a huge blow to the ECOWAS, which was established in 1975 and is considered Africa’s most important regional group, and may bring diverse negative impacts on both the regional bloc and countries that left it.
Military rule, sanctions-based and other reasons are responsible for the leaving of the three states from the ECOWAS. But imposed sanctions and the conflicts of interest between the bloc and the three member states played a vital role. Notably, relations between ECOWAS and the three states have been tense because of the military’s seizing power in Niger in 2023, in Burkina Faso in 2022 and in Mali in 2020 but its tough sanctions led to the departure of Niger, which was imposed tough sanctions after the coup such as border closures, a no-fly zone for all commercial flights and the freezing of central bank assets, and other two countries from the alliance. Among others, geopolitical issues including the pro-West and pro-Russia issues are responsible for their departure. While the bloc is accused of favoring the West, the three countries are pro-Russian.
Photo credit: https://edition.cnn.com/.
But there will be various impacts of the leaving of the three countries from the ECOWAS, which established the ECOWAS monitoring group, a standing army for the organization and developed a common market for member countries to sell their products, on the alliance and the three countries. While the alliance may weaken and its legitimacy may be in challenge, along with its weakened efforts and regional cooperation in fighting insurgencies, the three countries can be impacted economically, as they depend on their neighboring countries, and find more challenges in bringing peace, though they will remain in the bloc’s free-trade scheme and get several other opportunities including the recognition of the ECOWAS logo bearing passports of their citizens.
Pertinently saying, the military cooperation of the member states of the ECOWAS has helped address conflicts especially insurgencies and bring peace. However, the three poorest countries left the alliance amidst the growing presence of insurgent groups, particularly in the Sahel region, where their operations are rapidly expanding and which are spilling over into coastal West African countries like Benin and Togo, largely driven by poverty, weak governance and porous borders — leading to significant security concerns and violent attacks across the region. Though the three states later created the Alliances of Sahel States (AES) on their own, it remains challenging to address the threats of insurgent groups in different countries including these countries.
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It may be difficult to bring the three countries back to the vital regional alliance. Positively saying, the West African regional bloc ECOWAS urged the three countries to reconsider the decision to leave the regional alliance. But negotiations and the withdrawal of some sort of sanctions may be helpful. Regardless of the departure of the three states from the alliance, its further emphasis on the negotiations-based resolutions of political problems and conflicts rather than the imposition of tough sanctions may also be helpful many times in addressing the conflicts of interests within its members and avoiding the departure of countries from it.
Even if the three states do not rejoin and the AES is helpful, the ECOWAS can still help bring peace in the Sahel region, where conflicts are a major problem and hinder development. Optimistically saying, the regional bloc hopes to still collaborate with the countries in tackling some of the region’s challenges, including insurgent violence. But cooperation from all countries, including the three states, is needed to mitigate conflicts and bring peace to the region.
