Nearly a year ago, West Africa seemed alarmingly on the verge of war. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was threatening “military intervention” in Niger if the leaders of the country’s July 26 coup did not immediately relinquish power and free President Mohammed Bazoum.
After the military government in Niamey failed to respond, ECOWAS activated a standby force, raising alarm bells across the region as citizens began to protest the move.
Burkina Faso and Mali – Niger’s fellow military-led neighbours who were already suspended from the bloc – joined with Niamey to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) and pledged to defend against any attacks, threatening to widen the conflict.
Tempers then calmed, but only slightly. ECOWAS backtracked, instead slapping crippling sanctions on Niger, blocking its land and air borders, cutting off electricity supply from neighbouring Nigeria, and freezing commercial transactions. On January 29, the AES states jointly declared their exit from the ECOWAS, sending shockwaves through the regional bloc that was already seen as weak.
Since, ECOWAS leaders have been scrambling to get the AES back into the bloc by lifting sanctions on Niger; but that has, thus far, failed to appease the alliance before a January 2025 deadline, when the divorce will be official. The bloc’s fracturing, experts have said, could roll back more than five decades of regional diplomacy, disband military cooperation amid rising insecurity in the region, and cripple economic ties.
As both sides standoff, Senegal’s recently elected President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has attempted to play a “soft” peacemaker, urging ECOWAS to respect states’ sovereignty, and prompting military government leaders to accept dialogue.
“I am nobody’s mediator,” Faye, who does not have an official ECOWAS mandate to resolve the crisis, clarified during a tour of the AES countries in May. But the region’s multiple crises, he pointed out, require collective effort. “We must join forces to tackle common challenges such as terrorism, climate change, and poverty,” he said.
Faye is particularly well placed to reconcile the bloc because he was not yet in office last year when ECOWAS threatened to invade Niger and enjoys goodwill from the military trio, Olakounle Yabi Gilles, head of the West Africa Citizen think tank (WATHI), told media.
“He enjoys credibility already given the special circumstances around his election.”
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