What part does ECOWAS play?

The leaders of the West African ECOWAS bloc met on Thursday (Aug. 9) after threatening to intervene in the Niger. ECOWAS has emerged as a crucial political player in the handling of regional crises.

The military junta in Niger that seized power on July 26 was given a one-week deadline by the block on July 30 to restore the nation to constitutional order.

With 15 members, ECOWAS is headquartered in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo are the eight francophone nations. The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone are the five English-speaking nations.

two lusophone nations: Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.

The 15-nation group was initially formed in 1975 to encourage economic growth among its members. Since then, it has intervened in conflicts in places like Sierra Leone and Mali.

As a result of military takeovers, four of them—Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and most recently, Niger—have been suspended or sanctioned.

Nigeria, a regional powerhouse with a population and GDP that make up more than half of the bloc, dominates both the organization’s political and economic landscape.

The head of ECOWAS’s top decision-making body is now Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Common money? a non-moving project
The Lagos treaty, which established ECOWAS, was signed on May 28, 1975, in the hub of Nigerian commerce with the intention of abolishing trade restrictions based on language, politics, and the economy.

However, ECOWAS increasingly had to lower its economic objectives.

It’s likely too late to revive the Eco, the one currency that its members were supposed to use in 2020.

keeping the peace mission
The bloc’s political influence has increased nonetheless. It has actively become involved in resolving disputes all around the region.

It enacted a new statute in 1993 that gave it official authority over the prevention and resolution of regional conflicts.

The construction of a 6,500-strong force, including a rapid intervention element, in case of conflict was approved by West African military chiefs in June 2004.

A five-year training program was approved in November 2005 to enable peacekeeping missions.

militarized actions
By assembling a West African army of several thousand men in 1990, ECOWAS had a significant political influence throughout the civil conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

In 1997, it was crucial in bringing peace to Liberia.

ECOWAS also engaged in Guinea-Bissau during the coup in 2012 and during the armed conflict there in 1998–1999.

It intervened in the Ivory Coast in 2003 during an insurrection, and a decade later it assisted Bamako in Mali in regaining control of the north that had been captured by jihadists.

It stepped in when outgoing president Yahya Jammeh, who had lost the country’s 2017 elections, refused to resign in The Gambia.