The putschists of the Sahel simultaneously proclaimed their exit from ECOWAS, the subregional organization, on Sunday, January 28.

The military regimes in power in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have taken the plunge. Now, these countries are no longer members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The joint statement was read simultaneously, at midday, on television sets in the three countries. The break with the organization is an unprecedented act of defiance on the part of the Sahelian putschists; ECOWAS being one of the regional blocks (15 countries are part of it) where integration was considered to be the

Note that Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger signed a mutual defense pact in September 2023, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Their respective leaders — Colonel Assimi Goïta, Captain Ibrahim Traoré and General Abdourahamane Tchiani — say today that ECOWAS has “betrayed its founding principles [...] under the influence of