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THE COLLAPSE OF ECOWAS

Writer's picture: Michael ThervilMichael Thervil

Written by Michael Thervil


Photographer(s) unknown


“ECOWAS”, which stands for “Economic Community of West African States” appears to be showing signs of collapse as its grip over the western part of the Sahel region of Africa might be coming to an end. Ever since Mali forced the French and their military out of its country back in 2022, several other African countries embarked on the same path. African countries like Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, and now the Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) are inspiring other African countries to do the same. With all of this happening ECOWAS is starting to fill the burn with this liberating trend in the region.

 

For the military government of the succeeding African nations from French colonialism, ECOWAS which was founded in 1975 is seen as nothing more than a second set of eyes for America, even though ECOWAS has stated that its goal is to unify African countries within the region. Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have successfully broken away from both the French and now ECOWAS and have formed their own unifying coalition amongst themselves called Alliance of Sahel States or AES for short.

 

Although ECOWAS still maintains Cabo Verde, Benin, Gambia. Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo and Senegal, current speculation from political commentators in the region suspect that ECOWAS may lose several more African countries from it’s political apparatus. According to many civilians, political figureheads, and military leaders in the region, ECOWAS has continuously failed to deliver on their promise of protecting African countries from terrorism, drug trafficking, instabilities, extremism, disease, and generally unifying African countries. It was reported that when the military of Niger executed a coup against its government because of claims of corruption, ECOWAS executed some of the harshest sanctions on Niger which further caused geopolitical tension and socio-economic strain on the country while threatening to retake the country by military force.

 

Even with ECOWAS threats of sending in military troops to confront the Junta’s, the truth turned out to be that ECOWAS simply didn’t have the ability to defeat the military Junta of the three break away countries. The poor decisions and empty threats and actions of ECOWAS only brought the military Junta’s of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger together to the point where they are today. The military Junta’s of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali also view Russia as the best alternative in order to break free of western hegemony – while ECOWAS seems to be stuck in the past and kissing the ass of western powers. These are harsh words, but these are the most accurate description of how the military Junta’s of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger see the situation.

 

With Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger breaking away from ECOWAS, ECOWAS has seen a steep reduction of roughly 50% of the total area of land that it once controlled. With ECOWAS losing 76 million of it’s once 446 million people under its rule, the speculation of geopolitical pundits just may be spot on.

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