On January 28, 2024, three members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic, announced their exit from the regional integration body. ECOWAS, formed on May 28, 1975, by fifteen member-states of West Africa, is one of Africa’s most successful regional integration efforts. ECOWAS’ pursuit of political objectives began with the restoration of peace, stability and order in Liberia and Sierra Leone in their civil wars of the 1990s. Having successfully performed that security function, it moved further towards political objectives by adopting charters to support political democracy.
The exit of the Alliance of Sahel States would have implications for the region’s security. Apart from the economy, which would be hampered by the exit, the security cooperation among the ECOWAS states, which has been one of the essential strategies to rein in terrorism and other conflicts in the region, will no longer be tenable.
In this edition of Nextier SPD Policy Weekly, we explore the security implications of the exit of the Sahel Alliance from ECOWAS on security in West Africa and the continuing relevance of ECOWAS in the sub-region.
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