ECOWAS risks disintegration if Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger withdraw – Omar Touray

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has warned it risks disintegration and worsening insecurity after Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger formalised their separatist union.

The ECOWAS Commission president said the move was a blow to the 50-year-old bloc and could have serious consequences if it did not reverse its decision.

The move comes after military leaders from all three countries said on Saturday they were “irrevocably” turning their backs on the 15-member ECOWAS to form a confederation of their own states.

The juntas came to power after a series of coups between 2020 and 2023, with ECOWAS responding by imposing sanctions, demanding a swift restoration of civilian rule.

ECOWAS even threatened to use military force, before backing down.

Some sanctions have since been lifted and the bloc is trying to persuade the juntas to drop their threat to leave the EU.

ECOWAS believes that the latest move by the juntas could disrupt the freedom of movement of populations in the region and compromise efforts to combat regional insecurity, particularly in terms of intelligence sharing.

“Our region is facing a risk of disintegration,” warned the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray, on Sunday.

It has now been asked to adopt a “more vigorous approach”, according to a statement released on Monday, in which ECOWAS expressed “disappointment at the lack of progress” and promised to “develop a forward-looking contingency plan”.

ECOWAS has appointed Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye as mediator in the crisis. His appointment was decided at an ECOWAS summit held on Sunday in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Mr. Faye was presented as having the capacity to serve as a facilitator in a mission that would face significant challenges.

He is of the same generation as the three military leaders – much younger than other leaders in the region – and shares the juntas’ criticism of the role of Western powers in the region, particularly France, the former colonial power in all four countries.

All three militarily-led countries have expelled French soldiers who were there to help fight the jihadist group and turned to Russia for military assistance.

In a related development, the German Defense Ministry announced that its military would end operations in Niger at the end of next month, following the breakdown of talks with the ruling junta.

The operation comes after the United States completed the withdrawal of its troops from an air base in the capital Niamey, leaving its remaining forces at a single drone base in the central city of Agadez.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, reappointed as head of ECOWAS, has stressed the need for new partnerships to overcome the political, economic and security challenges facing West Africa and the Sahel region in particular – the semi-arid region south of the Sahara Desert.

On Saturday, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger signed a treaty to form a new confederation – the Alliance of Sahel States.

They agreed to build common institutions and infrastructure that could facilitate the free movement of their citizens within the three countries.

ECOWAS citizens are free to live and work in any member country, but if all three countries leave the bloc, their citizens would lose that right unless a new agreement is reached.

West African leaders fear that jihadist groups could spread across the Sahel’s borders to neighboring countries – a situation that could harm their citizens and regional security.

Junta-ruled states have been hardest hit by Islamist insurgencies, which is one of the reasons the military has given for seizing power.

Adama Gaye, a former ECOWAS communications director, told the BBC that the junta’s confederation was a “very hard blow” to the bloc, as the three countries are all founding members of ECOWAS, which was established in 1975.

He partly blamed ECOWAS, however, saying it was pushing military-ruled countries to hold free and fair elections, while several other members were not “true democracies” themselves.

“ECOWAS should make an effort to avoid becoming an institutional laughing stock, because how can it implement this… when most of the other countries that claim to uphold this demand for democracy are not themselves genuine democracies,” he told the BBC’s Newsday programme.