Mali’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdoulaye Diop announced the decision of the Sahel Troika that Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali officially left the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), “Sahel Intelligence” reported on Wednesday.
Diop also denounced the potential rehire of visas for nationals of the Sahel Troika traveling inside the ECOWAS territory, describing it as a blackmail and scaremongering strategy employed by some ECOWAS officials.
The minister’s reaction came after the ECOWAS summit in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, where the Senegalese and Togolese presidents were appointed mediators for talks with three junta-ruled countries.
“Our heads of state were very clear in Niamey (in Niger) that the withdrawal of the three countries from ECOWAS is irrevocable and immediate, and we must now focus on the future,” explained the Malian minister.
He stressed that Mali remains open to cooperation with its neighbors and other organizations sharing this space.
The official ECOWAS exit follows the announcement made by the three military-led republics in late January, via their national television networks.
After the initial announcement, ECOWAS subsequently placed a slew of economic, political, and financial penalties on the three countries attempting to force them to “return to constitutional order,” but this only served to strengthen the military leaders’ resolve.
The three nations’ interim officials described the ECOWAS penalties as “illegitimate” and “immoral.”
According to Article 91 of the ECOWAS Treaty, a member state can only leave its membership after providing one year’s written notice and abiding by the organization’s requirements during that time. It is unknown whether the three plan to do so.
Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso are landlocked countries that import and export goods through ECOWAS ports.
The leaders of the West African countries signed on Saturday a confederation treaty “the Alliance of Sahel States” (AES), demonstrating their willingness to pursue a common route outside of a regional economic union that has urged them to return to democratic leadership.
The agreement occurred at the first summit of the AES, signaling a closer convergence between neighbors in the insurgency-torn central Sahel region.
Morocco launched an effort in December that would offer Sahelian countries access to the Atlantic called the “Royal Initiative on Sahel Countries’ Access to the Atlantic,” a pact bringing together Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Chad.
ECOWAS is a 15-member regional organization, created in 1975, to foster economic integration and shared development in the West African sub-region.