UPDATE: ECOWAS says Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger remain important members
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said on Sunday night that Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, who earlier in the day announced their decision to leave the sub-regional bloc, remain important members, and the Authority of Heads of State and Government "remains committed to find a negotiated solution to the political impasse".
In a communique issued in Abuja, it said the ECOWAS Commission was yet to receive any direct formal notification of the three countries to withdraw from the Community.
"The ECOWAS Commission, as directed by the Authority of the Heads of State and Government, has been working assidiously with these countries for the restoration of constitutional order.
"The ECOWAS Commssion remains seized with the development and shall make further pronouncements as the situation evolves."
The three countries, which are under military rule announced on Sunday that they are leaving ECOWAS with immediate effect, claiming that it has drifted from the ideals of its founding fathers.
A statement read by Colonel Amadou Abdramane, the spokesman for the Niger junta, said: "After 49 years, the valiant peoples of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger regretfully and with great disappointment observe that the organisation has drifted from the ideals of its founding fathers and the spirit of Pan-Africanism."
It said the organisation had failed to assist them in their "existential fight against terrorism and insecurity".
It said, "worse, when these States decided to take their destiny into their own hands, it adopted an irrational and unacceptable posture by imposing illegal, illegitimate, inhumane and irresponsible sanctions in violation of its own texts; all things which have further weakened populations already bruised by years of violence imposed by instrumentalized and remote-controlled terrorist hordes”.
The three countries have been fighting jihadists for years with huge human and material losses.
Relations between the three countries and ECOWAS have been strained since they staged military coups at different times between 2020 and 2023.
They have been suspended from all ECOWAS and African Union decision-making bodies until constitutional order is restored. ECOWAS leaders at one stage last year threatened military action against Niger.
The regional economic bloc had been struggling to restore constitutional order in the three countries as well as Guinea.
Last year, the three countries pulled out of the G5, which was established to fight Islamists in the Sahel region, and formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
They said the mutual defence pact is against “possible threats of armed rebellion or external aggression”.
It binds the signatories to assist one another in the event of an attack on any one of them.
-0- PANA MA 28Jan2024
