..., which came to power via a series of military coups in 2020–2023, to chart a joint course of political and economic development. The AES was announced after Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger withdrew in January 2024 from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)—a regional bloc that urged the trio’s leaders to restore civilian rule in their countries.
At the opening of the Niamey summit, Niger’s military leader
said
, inter alia, that his “people have irrevocably turned their back on ECOWAS” ...
... 2023 the transition leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger signed the Liptako-Gourma Charter, instituting the Alliance of Sahel States. This happened in the midst of economic sanctions imposed on them by the subregion’s Economic Community of Western Africa (ECOWAS) and its threats to carry out a military operation in Niger. For the three landlocked nations, those sanctions had serious repercussions, aggravating the socioeconomic situation inside those countries and fueling the growing activity of terrorist ...
... France alone was able to create in the region, after leaving it, an infrastructure of political influence that not only affected the economy, but also the basic issues affecting the development of new sovereign states. The Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union, the leading international organisations in the region, were established at various times with the support of France and enjoy its patronage. In some countries of the region, including Senegal, ...
... up trilateral trade, addressing regional instability, as well as taking joint steps towards a
reinstatement
of their (revoked due to unconstitutional changes of governments) membership in the African Union (AU) and in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The international community perceived this statement as an emergence of a new regional association, although the “partnership” between the said nations has not been formalized so far—three months later—and therefore the likelihood of ...
