VIDEO: Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso Withdraw From ECOWAS

All three were suspended from ECOWAS, with Niger and Mali facing heavy sanctions. They have hardened their positions in recent months and joined forces in an “Alliance of Sahel States”.

Niger had hoped for an opportunity to talk through differences with fellow states of ECOWAS, which has cold-shouldered Niamey, imposing heavy economic and financial sanctions following the military coup that overthrew elected president Mohamed Bazoum.

The joint statement said: “After 49 years of existence, the brave people of Burkina, Mali and Niger note with much regret, bitterness and great disappointment that their Organization has moved away from the ideals of its founding fathers and Pan-Africanism
terrorist hordes.

“Furthermore, ECOWAS, under the influence of foreign powers, betrayed its founding principles and has become a threat to its member states and populations whose happiness is supposed to ensure.

“Indeed, the Organization has not provided assistance to our States in the context of our existential fight against terrorism and insecurity; worse, when these States decided to take their destiny into their own hands, it adopted an irrational and unacceptable posture by imposing illegal, illegitimate, inhumane and irresponsible sanctions in violation of its texts, all things which have further weakened populations already bruised by years of violence inflicted by instrumentalized and remote-controlled”, the statement read.