Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso reject the withdrawal period granted by ECOWAS

The military regimes of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso rejected, on Sunday December 22, the six-month withdrawal period granted by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) before their definitive withdrawal. In a press release, they said they saw a “attempt at destabilization” exterior.

The three countries which form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), all governed by juntas hostile to France, announced in January their desire to leave ECOWAS, an organization which today brings together fifteen countries and which they consider instrumentalised. by the former colonial power.

At a summit a week ago in Abuja, the regional organization announced a six-month cooling-off period for the three countries to reverse their decision after their official departure date, at the end of January 2025. will act as a “transition period” which will last until “July 29, 2025”in order to “keep the doors of ECOWAS open” to the three countries, according to the president of the ECOWAS Commission. But, according to the college of heads of state of the Confederation of Sahel States, this decision is not “just another attempt which would allow the French junta and its auxiliaries to continue planning and carrying out destabilizing actions against the AES”. He added that “this unilateral decision cannot bind the AES countries”. They had already announced before the summit that their decision to leave the organization was “irreversible”.

An “irreversible” withdrawal decision

The press release signed by the head of the Malian junta, Assimi Goïta, also denounces “destabilization maneuvers initiated by a handful of heads of state who impose their wishes and foreign agendas” within ECOWAS. The presidents of Senegal and Togo are playing the role of mediator in an attempt to bring the three countries back into ECOWAS.

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which expelled the French army from their soil, are cooperating to contain recurring attacks by jihadist groups, at the same time as they are moving closer militarily and politically to other powers such as Russia. Their political leaders regularly engage in violent diatribes against France, which they accuse of wanting to bring “a halt to the emancipatory dynamic initiated by the AES”.