Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger Dump ECOWAS

The military regimes in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have announced that they have dumped the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

They made their decision known on Sunday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Ilesa Grammar School at 90

VIDEO: Click on the image to watch 

According to France 24, the leaders of the three Sahel nations issued a statement saying it was a “sovereign decision” to leave the Economic Community of West African States “without delay”.

Struggling with jihadist violence and poverty, the regimes have had tense ties with ECOWAS since coups took place in Niger last July, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Mali in 2020.

All three were suspended from ECOWAS with Niger and Mali facing heavy sanctions.

The Associated Press reports that the juntas read out their statement on state television in all three countries that they have “decided in complete sovereignty on the immediate withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).”

They alleged that the bloc has “moved away from the ideals of its founding fathers and pan-Africanism” after nearly 50 years of its establishment.

“Furthermore, 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,” their statements read.