Following the threat by three member-states run by the military to permanently withdraw from ECOWAS, the West African regional bloc has extended an olive branch to the estranged members.
ECOWAS said on Saturday [Feb. 24] it is relaxing the sanctions on the Niger Republic levelled as a result of last year’s military coup. The sanctions include land- and-air border closures, a no-fly zone, and a travel ban on government officials “with immediate effect.”
The sanctions were being lifted “on purely humanitarian grounds”, said the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray.
But there are conditions: the immediate release of ousted president Mohamed Bazoum and members of his family and a return to democratic rule in Niger.
The sanctions were imposed to compel Niger’s junta, led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, to reinstate Mohamed Bazoum as the president of Niger. But they had little or no impact on the ambition of the military government, which has since consolidated its hold on power.
About the ineffectiveness of the sanctions, ECOWAS chairman and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said the bloc “must re-examine our current approach to the quest for constitutional order in four of our member states”, referring to Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, as well as Guinea, which is also military-led.
—Ezinwanne Onwuka reports for TruthNigeria from Abuja.
