Скачать или смотреть West Africa Shocked As Niger Invites Ecowas Countries To Join AES Sahel

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A lot of interesting things were said during the recent Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the African Development Bank. But, one of the statements that caught the attention of everyone, was the one said by the Prime Minister of Niger, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zain. He said, “I can't be too provocative, but I want to ask ECOWAS to join the AES. There are ECOWAS countries that would probably want to join the AES because the culture of sovereignty and dignity of the continent exists within the AES”. What does this mean? In a meeting where member countries of the regional bloc, ECOWAS, were present, the Minister of Niger used that forum to encourage all of them to leave ECOWAS, thereby dismantling the bloc which has been in existence for about five decades and joining the AES, an formed by Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

Now, the reason why this is interesting is that, for the past four months, ECOWAS, under the leadership of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has been trying to bring back Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso from the regional bloc, after they announced their withdrawal from the bloc in late January. The leadership of ECOWAS has tried so many things from lifting up sanctions imposed on these countries to setting up dialogue meetings, in order to achieve their goal. Yet, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have remained steadfast in their decision. The recent move made by ECOWAS to bring back the three Sahel nations was through Senegal President Faye, who if you can recall, promised during his campaign to bring back Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso back to ECOWAS.