The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has reiterated its commitment to democracy, saying it has decided to move in military force to stabilise countries under the threat of military take-over. The regional bloc disclosed this after an Extraordinary Summit in Accra, yesterday, chaired by Ghana’s President and Chairperson of ECOWAS, Nana Akufo-Addo.

A communiqué at the end of the meeting strongly condemned the attempted coup d’état in Guinea Bissau and expressed solidarity with President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the people of Guinea Bissau. ECOWAS decided to deploy a force with view to stabilising the country.

The sub-regional body also decided to maintain the military and police components of the ECOWAS Mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG) to consolidate stability in the country.

The communiqué said,

The Authority was briefed by H.E. Suzi Carla BARBOSA, Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and the Diaspora of Guinea Bissau, on the circumstances surrounding the attempted coup d’état in Guinea Bissau on 1st February 2022.

The Authority firmly condemned the attempted coup d’état in Guinea Bissau and expressed solidarity with President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the people of Guinea Bissau.

In view of these recent developments, the Authority decides to deploy a force with a view to supporting the stabilisation of the country.

The Authority further decides to maintain the military and police components of the ECOWAS Mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG) to consolidate stability in the country.

The Authority affirms its commitment to stand firm for the protection of democracy and freedom in the region and reiterates its resolute stance to upholding the principle of zero tolerance for ascension to power through unconstitutional means, as enshrined in the 2001 ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good governance.

The communiqué also stated that the West African leaders decided to uphold the suspension of Burkina Faso from all ECOWAS institutions until the restoration of constitutional order. It called on the military authorities in Guinea Bissau to establish the transition institutions, adopt a transition calendar, and facilitate the return to constitutional order within the shortest time possible.

The West African leaders instructed the commission to ensure continuous engagement with the new authorities through the establishment of a monitoring mechanism, including African Union and United Nations, with a view to helping the transition process.

On the political situation in the Republic of Mali, ECOWAS took note of the recent establishment of the National Transition Council (CNT), as the legislative body, but expressed concern over the unavailability of the required transition calendar five months after the coup d’état, as requested by the Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of States and Government held on 16th September 2021.

It stated,

The Authority welcomes the conclusions of the 1057th meeting of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union held on 14th January 2022 endorsing all the ECOWAS decisions and sanctions on Mali.

The Authority regrets the unavailability of a new timetable in line with the decisions of the Authority. Consequently, the Authority decides to: Uphold all the sanctions imposed on Mali in line with its decision of 9 January 2022.

Urge the Malian authorities to urgently propose an acceptable electoral timetable to ECOWAS with a view to enabling the progressive lifting of the sanctions. Remain seized of the situation in Mali.

Furthermore, ECOWAS reaffirms its readiness to work in conjunction with the African Union and the United Nations to provide the necessary technical support to the authorities in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali in implementing the approved timetables.

The resurgence of military coups on the continent had forced some analysts to call for the establishment of ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), a military force to protect democracy in the sub-region.

ECOMOG was a formal arrangement for separate armies to work together. It was largely supported by personnel and resources of the Nigerian Armed Forces, with sub-battalion strength units contributed by other ECOWAS members, which included Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

While the protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance was signed in Freetown, on May 29, 1981, Anglophone ECOWAS members were said to have established ECOMOG in 1990 to intervene in the civil war in Liberia (1989 to 1996).

ECOMOG had been described as the first credible attempt at a regional security initiative in Africa.

Meanwhile, the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, stressed that as far as ECOWAS was concerned, there was only one way of changing government in the region, which was through democratic election. Osinbajo disclosed this after attending the ECOWAS Extraordinary Summit in Accra.

The vice president, according to a statement by his media assistant, Laolu Akande, was responding to reporters’ questions about how the summit of the leaders fared.

Osinbajo was quoted as saying, “I think it has been fruitful, the Heads of State, again, reiterated the firm position that had been taken earlier that there is absolutely no excuse for a change of government by coup d’état.

So, what happened in Burkina Faso was considered and has been condemned by all of the heads of state and we do not think there is any excuse for it whatsoever.

But at the moment, of course, engagement is going on with the military junta and also we condemned the attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau and congratulated President Embalo and the people of Guinea-Bissau for resisting that unconstitutional attempt to change the government.

All in all, it has been fruitful and we are very hopeful that lessons had been learnt and we will not see a repeat of this.

Asked about the situation in Mali, the vice president said,

We are expecting that the Malian authorities would respond to ECOWAS imposed sanctions, as you know, and we expect that at some point, the Malian authorities themselves would begin to speed up the process of transition. We expect that they would do so. We are looking forward to that engagement.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.