Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have decided to withdraw with immediate effect from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the 15-member regional organization, as announced in a joint statement on Sunday.
The statement, which was read to the official media in the three countries, said that the leaders of the three Sahel countries, “bearing all their responsibilities before history and in response to the expectations and aspirations of their people, decide with full sovereignty the immediate withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from the Economic Community of West African States.”
“After 49 years, the valiant peoples of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger see, with great regret and disappointment, that ECOWAS has deviated from the ideals of its founding fathers and the spirit of African unity,” Colonel Amadou Abderrahmane, spokesman for Niger’s military junta, said in the statement.
Abdul Rahman added, “The organization clearly did not help these countries in their existential war on terrorism and insecurity.”
These three countries have witnessed the army seizing power over the past years, the most recent of which was the army taking power in Niger last July after the overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum.
The regional organization imposed sanctions on these countries, and began discussions with them in order to set a timetable for organizing presidential elections, but those talks did not yield results.
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