By: Mercy Peter
The President of ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Touray, Wednesday 29 January 2025 said the authority of the Head of State and government of the Economic Community of West African States, will determine the mode of future engagement with Burkina Faso, Mali and the Republic of Niger.
The three military-led West African nations have officially withdrawn from ECOWAS.
“The withdrawal of Burkina Faso, the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Niger from ECOWAS has become effective today, 29th January 2025,” Touray said.
He said the next step would be the exit negotiations which would involve ECOWAS and the three countries.
For the meantime, ECOWAS said that passports and identity cards bearing its logo will remain valid for travel within the region for citizens from the three countries.
He also said trade and economic activities will also proceed under the existing ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, allowing goods and services from the three countries to move freely.
He explained that “These arrangements will be in place until the full determination of the modalities of our future arrangements to the three countries by the ECOWAS authority of head of state and government.”
He explained: “On January 29, 2025, the three AES states, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Niger, formally ceased-to-be members of the Economic Community of the West African states. “This followed the notification the Commission received from the three countries in January 2024 regarding their position and intention to withdraw from the community.
“Article 91 of the revised Treaty of ECOWAS provides that when a member country intends to leave the community, they should give a one-year notice, and to give that one year, they have all the permission to withdraw their notification.
“The notification of the three countries that were communicated in January 2024 were not or have not been withdrawn.
“As a result, the authority acknowledged during its summit in December, on the 15th of December 2024, that the three countries will cease to be members of ECOWAS from today, the 29th of January 2025.
“On the 13th of January 2025, I visited all the three countries, to communicate the position of the authority with respect to their notification.”
He said the Commission is prepared to commence the modalities for their exit from the bloc and future engagement.
“We, as I have said, are putting in place structures that will allow for discussions,” he added.
He pointed out that engagement with the three countries will commence as soon as they show commitment, saying that two of the countries have already indicated interwst to discuss while the Commission is awaiting the response of the third one.
He said: “Communication from two of the countries indicating their intention to sit and discuss with ECOWAS, and we look forward to those discussions.
“My office told me just while coming here that another response has come, but we are positive that all three countries will respond.”
ECOWAS president however stressed that doors are still open for their return.
For the meantime, he said the citizens from the three countries are still covered by the ECOWAS protocol.
He said the expected discussions with the three countries would bother on institutional, legal, trade
Communication from two of the countries indicating their intention to sit and discuss with ECOWAS, and we look forward to those discussions.
On the consequences of the withdrawal on citizens engaged by ECOWAS, Touray said according to Article 53 of Staff regulations, they cease to work for the Commission.
He therefore said the staff rules would be followed.
“Article 53 states that when a state or a country withdraws from the community, citizens from that country will cease to work as staff for the institutions. So it is the staff rules that will be implemented,” he said.
In the area of security, Touray said: “It is in our collective interest to work together in all areas, including in the area of security. ECOWAS sees the security of each and every one of us to be closely tied. For that reason, security collaboration will continue at all levels, not only in the ECOWAS States but across the region.”
He stressed that “ECOWAS has shown the whole world, and the community in particular, the value of being a member of ECOWAS. This is the region, the only region on the continent, where with a single ID card you can move from one end to another end. I’m not saying there are no problems, but legally you can move from one end to another end.
“You can pick up your passport, hop on a plane and go anywhere else without having to go through all these visa problems. This is also the region where member states can trade freely among themselves for produce that are qualified under ECOWAS’s trade liberalisation scheme. So this is what we must build on for the benefit of our community, and I believe nobody should have a problem with this.”
Touray also pointed out that the bloc will have to work on peace and security, we will have to work on governance so as to ensure its unity.
“So these are areas that should be important for ECOWAS, and ECOWAS leaders have underlined their commitment to these principles,” he said.
He also added “ To boost the community’s capacity to address insecurity, especially problems relating to terrorism, one of the goals is to reactivate the stand-by force.
“The stand-by force is initially, I think, reactivated with 1,650 strong men, but it’s scaled up to 5,000 men. “The leaders have also decided that the funding for the stand-by force will come from within the community, and they have instructed their ministers of finance to work on modalities for increasing the mobilisation of internal resources. In addition to that, we have Resolution 2719 of the United Nations, which is a game-changer, and that resolution seeks to fund regional peace and cooperation directly from UN ordinary resources.
“So together with the commitment of leaders to raise internal resources and the new development at the level of the UN, we believe we are now better positioned to address terrorism in the Sahel Area, and this is why we hope that we can continue to collaborate with our brothers and sisters from the three countries to address this key challenge, not only in the Sahel area, but also in the region.”
