Africa (Commonwealth) _West African leaders will meet later this month to discuss how to reverse a succession of coups and control Islamist hostilities in the Sahel area.
The Economic Community of West African States will convene in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on December 10, according to a statement issued by Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara’s office following negotiations with ECOWAS leaders.
The leaders last met in August for talks on Niger, following a July 26 coup that deposed elected President Mohamed Bazoum. He has subsequently been imprisoned at his Niamey home.
ECOWAS leaders threatened military action as a last resort in order to reinstate Bazoum and put harsh economic sanctions on Niger, which is currently controlled by a military administration commanded by General Abdourahamane Tiani.
However, the regime has dug in and stated that a transition to civilian administration may take up to three years. Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is also the current head of ECOWAS, said back-channel conversations with the Niger dictatorship are still underway.
ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs Abdel-Fatau Musah stated that they have not abandoned the military option. “We are suspending it, waiting for the penalties to produce results,” he said.
Many things are subject to negotiation, but a three-year transition is not one of them, he added. However, he stated that attempts to meet with the coup leaders had failed due to the regime’s refusal. Omar Alieu Touray, head of the ECOWAS commission, stated that the group could not recognize the military administration.
President Bazoum would continue in office until the ECOWAS leadership can find a consensus on the issue, he told the ECOWAS parliament in Abuja on Thursday. Since 2020, four of the bloc’s 15 member nations have been headed by troops stemming from coups: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea.
All have now been suspended from the organization and will not be represented at the summit in Abuja. The first three, which are dealing with terrorist violence, have formed an Alliance of Sahel States. According to senior officials in Sierra Leone, another ECOWAS member, a botched coup attempt left 21 people dead on Sunday.
Political unrest in West Africa’s former French colonies has resulted in a rash of military takeovers. Since 2020, anti-French sentiments appear to have triggered or contributed to coups in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and, most recently, Niger.
Ibrahima Kane, a Senegalese human rights lawyer with the Open Society Foundation, told DW that emotions wanting independence from alleged French influence are genuine.
“The French’s perception of our citizens has never changed.” They have always treated us as second-class citizens. They always treat Africans, especially Francophone Africans, in a certain manner. And West Africa wishes for a change,” he remarked.
Some observers blamed the recent coups on widespread poverty in many former French territories. The long-awaited measure to formalize the demise of the CFA franc, a West African currency controlled by the French Treasury, was only passed in 2020. It took 75 years for this to happen. France has been accused of abusing these nations’ natural resources while trying to solve inhabitants’ everyday economic issues.
Citizens typically lose trust and tolerance in democratic procedures, according to Posthumus, as their complaints develop. Democracy failed to solve any of the fundamental issues that people faced, such as violence, poverty, and a lack of economic opportunity. And these juntas are really good at convincing people that they would fix these problems. They won’t, he said.
No matter how impoverished the countries Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are, there is a civil society actively functioning on the ground, together with a strong media that works to keep at least the duty bearers responsible, he added.
