ECOWAS summit calls for dialogue with withdrawing countries and discusses deployment of regional force
A number of heads of member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have called for the resumption of dialogue with the countries withdrawing from the regional bloc – Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
Senegalese President Basiro Diomaye Faye, whose summit on Sunday was his first since taking power, called for doing everything possible to avoid the withdrawal of these three brotherly countries, adding that reforms are needed to adapt ECOWAS to the current situation.
The 65th summit of the West African Organization also discussed the financing mechanism of a regional force to combat armed groups and restore constitutional order, where the creation of an initial force of 1,500 soldiers was called, and one proposal was to mobilize 5,000 troops at a cost of about $ 2.6 billion annually.
During the summit, Nigerian President Paula Ahmed Tinobu’s term at the head of the West African Organization was extended for an additional year, despite earlier reports of a dispute over his reappointment.
ECOWAS Commission Chairman Omar Touray warned that the region could face the risk of disintegration from the withdrawal of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and said freedom of movement and the regional bloc’s common market are at risk if the three countries led by transitional military councils withdraw.
Touray said the withdrawal of these three countries would risk facing political isolation, and losing millions of dollars in investments, stressing that this would also exacerbate insecurity and impede the work of the long-proposed regional force.
