West African countries approve withdrawal from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger

The leaders of the West African regional group, Ecowas, approved the withdrawal of the three military-ruled countries from the bloc, but gave a grace period of six months to reconsider it.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger plan to withdraw from Ecowas in January after rejecting the bloc’s bid to restore democracy.

This is the first time any country has left Ecowas since it was established in 1975 to promote economic and political integration in West Africa.

The three countries that left were founding members so this is a major contribution to what was the most developed trade group in Africa.

Citizens of all Ecowas countries currently have the right to live and work in all member states, while goods can move freely.

Ecowas has not yet said whether it will impose restrictions on people and goods from the three departing states, which have formed a new group, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES, based on its French acronym).

The Ecowas Commission in Abuja is mandated to resolve these issues, and how the two bodies should work together in the future.

Over the weekend, AES announced visa-free travel and residency rights for Ecowas citizens.

Their leaders said that this decision was taken in the spirit of friendship, and to strengthen the relationship between African people that has been going on for thousands of years.

However, all three countries are poor and landlocked, so many migrants leave them for richer, coastal countries in West Africa.

Ecowas leaders who met in Nigeria on Sunday said they respected the decision of the three Sahel countries to leave but gave a six-month transition period.

In the period between 29 January and 29 July 2025, the trio can be reinstated in the bloc if they decide to rejoin the community, noted a report from Ecowas.

Meanwhile, the talks led by the President of Senegal Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Faure Gnassingbé of Togo will continue.

So far, military officials have refused to stay in the organization despite efforts to persuade them.

After a ministerial meeting on Friday in Niger’s capital, Niamey, the three states in a joint statement said their decision was “irrevocable”.

Their withdrawal will have a major impact on regional unity and efforts to improve economic and security cooperation.

During the opening of the conference, the head of the Ecowas commission, Omar Touray, said that their “imminent exit” was disappointing, but he wanted to “commend the ongoing mediation efforts”, reported AFP news agency.

With their planned departure, this bloc will lose 76 million of its 446 million people and more than half of its total land area.

In a statement, the chairman of AES, the military governor of Mali, Assimi Goïta, said that the right of Ecowas citizens “to enter, circulate, live, establish and leave the territory” of the new bloc will be preserved.

His statement was seen as a sign to the leaders of Ecowas that Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger want to maintain good relations, even though they have left the organization.

The three states gave Ecowas notice in January 2023 that they would withdraw in a year, meeting the deadline set for the bloc of states deciding to leave.

Relations between the bloc and the three countries have been strained after military coups in Niger in July, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Mali in 2020.

Ecowas condemned the coup and suspended its membership, hoping to restore the rule of the people.

But the underground leaders dug in their heels, and turned to Russia.

They accuse Ecowas of being too close to Western powers, and increasingly relying on Russia to fight armed jihadists waging an insurgency in the region.