The West African regional bloc is lifting sanctions imposed on Niger over last year’s coup, in a fresh push for dialogue after a series of political crises rocked the region in recent months.
A no-fly zone and border closures were among the sanctions lifted “with immediate effect”, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) chairman Omar Alieu Touray said on Saturday.
The lifting of sanctions is being done “for purely humanitarian reasons” to alleviate the suffering caused as a result, Turai told reporters after the bloc’s summit in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
The summit was aimed at addressing existential threats facing the region as well as imploring three military nations that have left the bloc – Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso – to reverse their decision.
The three were dismissed from ECOWAS after recent coups.
They have since declared their intention to leave the bloc permanently, but ECOWAS has demanded the return of the three states.
Speaking in his opening address at the start of the summit, ECOWAS chairman and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said the bloc “needs to review our current approach to seeking constitutional order in four of our member states”, referring to the three countries which have been suspended. , as well as Guinea, which is also military.
Tinubu urged Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to “review the decision” and said they should not “perceive our organization as an enemy”.
Appeasement gesture
Reporting from the summit in Abuja, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris said: “Almost all the sanctions imposed on Niger have been lifted,” including land, sea and air blockades and sanctions barring Niger from economic and financial institutions in area.
However, ECOWAS set “certain conditions” for the lifting of sanctions, he added. “They demand the immediate release of President Mohamed Bazum and his family members.”
Niger’s president Bazoum was ousted in a military coup last July, prompting ECOWAS to suspend trade and impose sanctions on the country. He is still imprisoned in the presidential palace in Niamey. On the eve of the summit, his lawyers urged ECOWAS to demand his release.
Idris said there was also discussion at the summit about lifting some sanctions on other military countries, including Mali and Guinea.
Earlier this week, ECOWAS co-founder and former Nigerian military leader General Yakubu Gowon also called on the body to lift “all sanctions imposed on Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger”.
“Even before today’s summit, there has been a change in tone, language and also the approach of ECOWAS as a whole to the sanctions and embargoes imposed on these three West African countries,” Idris said.
The easing of sanctions is seen as a gesture of appeasement as ECOWAS tries to persuade the three states to stay in the nearly 50-year-old alliance and reconsider leaving. Their planned exit would undermine regional integration efforts and bring about a messy disengagement from the bloc’s nearly $150 billion-a-year trade and service flows.
ECOWAS on Saturday gave the three military-led countries “an opportunity to become members of the organization once again,” Idris said, adding that they were asked to participate in the “technical discussions of the ECOWAS bloc” without reinstating them as leaders who will participate fully. of the state at summits or major conferences.
After Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger announced they would leave the alliance permanently, “the very institution of ECOWAS has been shaken,” Idris said.
“This is an organization that is gradually losing its strength and there is a risk of fragmentation… There is also a concern that if ECOWAS does not bring these people back into the fold, there is a risk of coups spreading across West Africa.” he added.