Ecowas crisis: West African states confirm withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger

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 called the Alliance of Sahel States (AES from the French acronym).

The Ecowas Commission in Abuja has been tasked to look into such issues and how the two blocs should work together in the future.

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

Their leaders said that this decision was taken in the spirit of friendship and to strengthen the centuries-old relations between African peoples.

However, these three countries are poor and landlocked, so most migrants go from them to richer, coastal countries in West Africa.

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

Between January 29 and July 29, 2025, a communique from Ecowas noted that the trio could be readmitted to the bloc if they decide to rejoin the community.

In the meantime, the talks led by Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Togo’s Faure Gnassingbe will continue.

So far, the military junta has refused to stay in the bloc, despite attempts to persuade them.

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

Their withdrawal would be a major blow to regional unity and efforts to strengthen economic and security cooperation.

At the opening of the summit, the head of the Ecowas commission, Omar Touray, said their “expected exit” was “heartbreaking” but he “wants to commend the ongoing mediation efforts”, AFP news agency reported.

With their planned departure, the bloc would lose 76 million of its 446 million people and more than half of its total geographical area.

Mali’s military ruler Assimi Goita, chairman of the NPP, said in a statement that Ecowas citizens would have the right to “enter, circulate, live, build and leave the territory” of the new bloc.

His statement was seen as a signal to Ecowas leaders that they want to maintain good relations despite the withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from the bloc.

The three states notified Ecowas in January 2023 that they would withdraw a year later, in line with the bloc’s timetable for states deciding to leave.

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

Ecowas condemned the coups and suspended its membership, hoping they would restore civilian rule.

But the leaders of the coup dug in their feet and turned towards Russia.

They accuse ECOWAS of being too close to Western powers and increasingly rely on Russia to fight armed jihadists in the region.

Correction December 16: This article originally described the trio’s plans as the first split in Ecowas. In fact, Mauritania withdrew in 2000 and we removed that line from the story.