ECOWAS to ease Niger sanctions pending democratic transition: summary
What we know?
- Niger’s Mohamed Bazoum in 2021 became the president in the first democratic transition of power since the 1960 independence of the West African nation
- On July 26, 2023, President Mohamed Bazoum was removed from office by his presidential guard, in what became the third coup in the West African region in as many years following Mali in 2021 and Burkina Faso in 2022
- General Abdourahmane Tchiani, commander of the presidential guards, appointed himself leader of the West African nation’s new military junta on July 27, 2023
- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on July 30, 2023, after an emergency meeting barred Niger from all commercial and financial transactions with member states
- In a televised address, Niger’s military leader Tchiani called the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS leaders “illegal” and “inhumane” after neighbour Nigeria cut electricity supply to Niger
- On December 8, 2023, General Tchiani paid a visit to Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé in what marked his first official visit to a full ECOWAS member state since seizing power and also two days ahead of an ECOWAS summit in Nigeria on December 10, to discuss the political situation in the Sahel region
- ECOWAS Chairman and President of Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu on December 10, at the summit in Abuja, announced the bloc’s commitment to re-engage Niger and other West African states under military rule pending a transition to democratic governance
- The bloc set up a committee of heads of state from Togo, Sierra Leone and Benin to engage the Council for the Protection of the Fatherland (CNSP) to come to terms with the transition to constitutional order
What they said?
ECOWAS President Omar Alieu Touray at the summit said “Based on the outcomes of the engagement by the committee of heads of state with the CNSP, the authority will progressively ease the sanctions imposed on Niger… Failure by the CNSP to comply with the outcomes of engagement with the committee, ECOWAS shall maintain all sanctions.” President of Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a statement at the ECOWAS summit also said, “On our part, we should be prepared to provide them with technical and material support, to ensure the achievement of these strategic goals.”
