![TOPSHOT - Niger's National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane (2nd R) is greeted by supporters upon his arrival at the Stade General Seyni Kountche in Niamey on August 6, 2023. Thousands of supporters of the military coup in Niger gathered at a Niamey stadium Sunday, when a deadline set by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to return the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum to power is set to expire, according to AFP journalists. A delegation of members of the ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) arrived at the 30,000-seat stadium to cheers from supporters, many of whom were drapped in Russian flags and portraits of CNSP leaders. (Photo by AFP) / "The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by - has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane] instead of [Colonel-Major Amadou Adramane]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require." (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)](https://i0.wp.com/media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230810160605-29-week-in-photos-081023.jpg?ssl=1)
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS urged junta-led Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali to reconsider their decision to quit the political and economic alliance, it said on Thursday, warning of the hardships the move would force on their citizens.
The three countries’ self-appointed military leaders jointly announced on Jan. 28 they were abandoning the bloc after it pressured them to restore constitutional order following a string of coups.
Their departure threatens to further weaken ECOWAS, which has struggled to curtail a retreat of democracy in West Africa that started with a military takeover in Mali in 2020.
Its mediation and security council met in Nigeria’s capital Abuja to discuss the issue and an electoral crisis in Senegal, where the unprecedented postponement of a presidential vote has sparked public outcry and international alarm.
Regarding the withdrawal, council chairman Yusuf Maitama Tuggar said the juntas’ move “would bring more hardship and will do more harm to the common citizens of those three countries.”
“And that is why we continue to urge those three countries to remain … And ECOWAS is going to redouble its efforts towards diplomacy, towards dialogue, towards reconciliation,” he said after the closed-door meeting.
Before talks, ECOWAS Commission President Omar Touray described the juntas’ decision as hasty and said they had failed to abide by the rules for quitting the bloc.
Touray did not specify which withdrawal conditions had been ignored.
Member states wishing to withdraw must give a written one-year notice.
On Wednesday the juntas said they planned to leave “without delay” as they did not feel bound by treaty terms, increasing the chances of a messy disentanglement from the region’s trade and services flows, worth nearly $150 billion a year.
In separate statements, they said ECOWAS had violated its own texts by imposing excessively punitive sanctions, including border closures, in the wake of the coups.
A swift departure also raises pressing questions for the millions of nationals from the three poor and landlocked nations who have settled in neighbouring states as the bloc allows visa-free travel and right to work.
“These are all things that you cannot just undo overnight … it takes more than pronouncements,” ECOWAS’ Tuggar said.
None of the officials commented on what they had discussed in private about Senegal’s postponement of a Feb. 25 election to December, although Touray described the move as a threat to regional peace and stability.
