The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Saturday announced it will lift sanctions against the Niger junta, ostensibly for humanitarian reasons, although it appears ECOWAS is losing a contest of wills with the military rulers of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
ECOWAS ministers met in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, on Saturday for closed-door emergency talks on the junta crisis. The West African economic bloc imposed tough sanctions against Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali after juntas overthrew their civilian governments between 2020 and 2023.
Malians supporting the overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita gather to celebrate in the capital Bamako on August 21, 2020. (AP Photo)
In response, the three junta governments announced in late January they would quit ECOWAS because they said the bloc had lost the “spirit of pan-Africanism” and had fallen under “the influence of foreign powers.”
The juntas said ECOWAS sanctions against them were “illegitimate, inhumane, and irresponsible.” They said they intended to create their own trilateral confederation called the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Niger additionally accused the bloc of interfering with its “existential fight against terrorism and insecurity.” Niger’s junta leaders claim they had to seize power because deposed President Mohamed Bazoum was too weak against terrorism.
Mohamed Toumba, one of the soldiers who ousted Nigerian President Mohamed Bazoum, addresses supporters of Niger’s ruling junta in Niamey on August 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)
In August 2023, when ECOWAS threatened military intervention to restore the elected government of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali said they would fight to defend Niger, potentially disrupting more than $150 billion in West African trade. There was little talk of restoring the governments of the three countries by force after that.
ECOWAS emerged from its closed-door session on Saturday to announce it would lift sanctions, unfreeze Niger’s financial assets, lift restrictions on commerce with Niger, and reopen the border immediately. According to ECOWAS President Omar Touray, some “targeted” and “political” sanctions against the Niger junta would remain in place, but he did not specify which ones.
The statement also lifted some sanctions against Guinea, which fell to a coup in 2021 but did not join the other juntas in quitting ECOWAS. The Guinea junta claimed that it dissolved its “interim government” but did not say what it would be replaced with or if elections would be held.
People celebrate in the streets with members of Guinea’s armed forces after the arrest of Guinea’s president, Alpha Conde, in a coup d’etat in Conakry on September 5, 2021. (CELLOU BINANI/AFP via Getty Images)
The ECOWAS statement concluded with an open plea to Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali to reconsider their decision to quit ECOWAS. The military leaders of the three nations were encouraged to think about “the benefits that the ECOWAS member states and their citizens enjoy in the community.”
The statement also included a request for Niger to consider releasing deposed President Bazoum from jail and draw up an “acceptable transition timetable” for a return to civilian rule, but it was clear ECOWAS and its chairman, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, are no longer attempting to dictate terms to the juntas.
“We must re-examine our current approach to the quest for constitutional order in four of our member states,” Tinubu said at the beginning of the emergency meeting, including Guinea with the three AES juntas.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said in December that ECOWAS, and especially Tinubu, underestimated the blowback from sanctions against the juntas:
[The sanctions] have created severe hardship in Niger with adverse boomerang effects on Nigeria – crippling a vibrant cross-border economy straddling the long Nigeria-Niger border, disrupting livelihoods, exacerbating humanitarian challenges, and jeopardizing big rail and gas projects that could bolster regional trade. On the political front, the sanctions threaten to harm bilateral cooperation on a range of important issues, particularly security.
… While the ECOWAS sanctions’ purpose was to pressure Niger’s de facto military authorities to reinstate Bazoum, that has not happened. Meanwhile, much of the impact of the broad-based measures is being felt by civilians.
The ECOWAS sanctions have cut off Niger from many of its traditional trading partners, worsening chronic food insecurity among vulnerable groups. The junta has maintained relations with neighbors Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, whom it sees as allies because all three are under military rule. But the borders with Benin and Nigeria, the two countries from which Niger normally imports food and other key necessities, remain closed. As a result, residents are grappling with shortages of medicine, cereals and imported foodstuffs like sugar, powdered milk and vegetable oil.
ICG suggested international pressure was brought to bear against ECOWAS because the sanctions made it very difficult to deliver humanitarian aid to Niger. Among other problems, closing the border with Nigeria forced aid shipments to use more dangerous alternate routes, and the loss of imported electricity to Niger pushed much of the country into darkness.
The sanctions also inflicted brutal blowback against Nigeria’s agricultural sector, which normally hires Nigerien workers to labor in its fields and sells a good deal of its produce over the border. The ripple effects have increased food insecurity in both Niger and Nigeria.
