What is changing with the leaving Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the Western bloc of West Africa?

Three countries under military rule officially left the regional bloc in West Africa, more than a year after diplomatic tensions.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger withdrawal is an enormous blow to ECOWAS, which is considered at the age of 50 the most important regional group in Africa.

The division was postponed after the three countries rejected the demands of Ecowas to restore diplomatic rule.

On Wednesday, EcOWAS said it will keep its “doors open” to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, although it advanced in their bloc, the Sahil alliance (AES through its French abbreviation).

ECOWAS – which represents the economic community in West African countries – was established in 1975 in an attempt to improve economic and political integration in West Africa.

Before disposing of Wednesday, the bloc had 15 members, including states such as Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

Citizens from all EcOWAS countries have the right to live and work in all member states, while goods can rotate freely.

The relations between Ecowas and the three states of Sahel were tense since the army seized power in Niger in 2023, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Mali in 2020.

After the Niger coup, Ecowas imposed broken penalties on the country, such as the closure of the borders, the aviation ban area for all commercial flights and the freezing of the central bank assets.

Ecowas also threatened to deploy its forces on Niger in order to restore democratic rule.

But this solid line promotes merely the torque of the three festivals.

Mali and Burkina Faso criticized “inhuman” penalties from Ikewas and pledged to defend Niger if the bloc intervened militarily.

After being suspended by Ecowas, the three states retreated by notifying them last January that they would withdraw within a year, and to meet the schedule set by the bloc of the states that decide to leave.

Negotiations have occurred between Ecowas and JUNTAS since then – but they have failed.

The three countries accuse Ecowas of being very close to Western powers, and instead, they are heading towards Russia.

According to the departure countries, they will now face greater sovereignty and independence from the force that has a foreign agenda.

But analysts say that Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso may fight outside the bloc – these are poor countries and a coastal review whose economies depend on their neighbors in West Africa.

While Ecowas is working on the conditions of its future relationship with the three countries, it says that it will continue to identify all passports and identity cards that bear the EcOWAS logo that citizens of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso keep.

Countries will also remain in the free trade plan.

Likewise, ASSIMI GOïTA, Chairman AES, said last January that the right of ECOWAS citizens to “enter, reside, establish, create and leave lands” will be preserved for the new bloc.

“The leaders of the three regular council have taken steps to say:” Yes, we get out of Ecowas but we want to preserve our relations, “Eliaso Gado, an expert on international affairs and a media advisor based in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, told BBC. Do not close our borders because they should have realized that if they did so, they would have shot themselves in the foot. ”

Western African observers are also concerned that the withdrawal will exacerbate security in the region. The coast – the semi -arid region of sub -Saharan desert that includes the three countries that leave – is destroyed with the jihadist rebellion and now represents “nearly half of the deaths of terrorism worldwide”, a A senior United Nations official said in April.

Ecowas was supporting Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in their battle against jihadists, but this help may now be canceled.

Although festivals are now receiving weapons and mercenaries from Russia, militants continue to inflict heavy victims to both civilians and the armed forces.

Ecowas will lose 76 million people from 446 million people and more than half of the geographical land area.

There are also fears that withdrawal will weaken both regional unity and cooperation in combating rebellion.

ULF Lassing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer, told The Lassing, head of the Sahael program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, for The Lassing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer, for The Lassing, Associated Press.

“The poorest of the three member states decided to leave the bloc to make the eclas in the eyes of its citizens seem to be a loser in this conflict.”

On Tuesday, some people in the three capitals moved in the countries to leave the streets to celebrate the withdrawal.

But not everyone supports JUNTAS decisions.

Omar Hamma from Niger said that he hopes that the three countries have remained in ECOWAS, while simultaneously belonged to AES.

“I wanted to overcome their differences because we have a common space, the same people who have historical similarities and the same economic facts,” he told the BBC.

Fatouma Harber, journalist and blogger who lives in Mali, is concerned that change may eventually cause administrative and economic troubles for her and other three countries from the three countries.

“However, if the AES coalition can really achieve benefits for us, it will be excellent,” she said.

Zabero Issa, who lives in the capital of Mali Bamako, took a more solid position, saying: “You do not have any power, it is Westerners who decide the leaders of Ecowas. Yes, I am very happy with the decision.”

In Ougadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, Cisse Kabore BBC told her that she wanted to keep her country in Ecowas because the region now “will not unite as it was before.”

Last month, Ecowas said it would give Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali to allow them for a period of six months to reconsider their withdrawal.

However, at a press conference on Wednesday, the chairman of the Ecowas Committee Omar Touray said: “Any country can decide to return to society at any time.”

To unify their exit from Ecowas and Strenghten their alliance, the three countries said they will start circulating the new AES passports on Wednesday.

They also decided to unite efforts to create a military unit of 5,000 people to fight the jihadist violence that has been afflicted with nations for years.