All three countries, led by coup-born governments, share anti-Western ideals and have opted to govern based on their ideologies. They have formed a defence and cooperation pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, elected in March, has expressed his intention to persuade the Malian junta, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, to remain in ECOWAS, Reuters reported.
What President Faye said:
“I spent a lot of time discussing it with the colonel,” Faye said on Malian state radio on Thursday.
“I understand the Malian position, which, although rigid, is not totally inflexible.”
He noted that all parties must collaborate to find effective ways to strengthen integration, including through bilateral cooperation and by addressing the shortcomings observed in multilateral cooperation.
“But we cannot resign ourselves to watching a tool for integration that was formidable in its conception, in the results it has brought us and which has been held up as an example, disintegrate without doing anything,” Faye said.
The three Sahel states formally notified the ECOWAS Commission of their decisions to leave the bloc in written notices dated January 29. According to the treaty, they will remain bound by membership until one year from that date.
On Thursday, Faye also visited Burkina Faso’s junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore in the capital, Ouagadougou.
“We also discussed the subject of ECOWAS; I understand today that the positions are somewhat fixed, but I perceive in each of these positions a window of opening that allows us to establish a thread of dialogue,” Faye said, according to the Burkinabe presidency’s communications department.
