Ominous Sign for Human Rights Accountability as Three Sahel States Leave the Economic Community of West African States
Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali officially left ECOWAS on January 29, 2025. (Wikimedia Commons)
Three Sahel states, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali, officially left the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on January 29, 2025. A year earlier , on January 28, 2024, the three states gave notice to the Community of their intention to leave, and diplomatic efforts to persuade them to remain in the bloc failed. Their departure occurs as ECOWAS celebrates its 50th anniversary.
The three states cited the influence of foreign powers on the community, the bloc’s betrayal of founding principles like Pan-Africanism, and the bloc’s political threat to member states for their departure in an official statement. It has been widely speculated that the real reason behind their departure was growing international pressure regarding human rights violations in the three states. The Human Rights Watch reports that the decision “will come at the cost of their own citizens’ access to justice.”
ECOWAS has long provided justice services to citizens in its boundaries through the ECOWAS Court of Justice. It can resolve issues in conflict-prone regions including those in the three departing states. Without ECOWAS, these states lack the political institutions to provide justice to their citizens, leaving human rights abuses unanswered and unprosecuted.
In an official statement on January 29, 2925, ECOWAS clarified that, for the time being, the departure will not interfere with the free trade or free travel zone that was once shared within the bloc. ECOWAS also stated it will continue to recognize the identity cards of the three departing states.
The three departing states have created their own alliance—The Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—as a new collective security arrangement. AES has broader plans; for instance, they hope to establish their own currency to be shared between members based on their own natural resources as a means to drive economic growth. Currently, these three states belong to what is called the CFA Franc Zone, an economic grouping of countries whose currency is guaranteed by the French Treasury. African leaders and thinkers criticize the CFA Franc Zone as a form of neocolonialism. In fact, many in Niger and Burkina Faso celebrated their nations’ departure from ECOWAS.
However, challenges abound for the new bloc. The UN rates the three nations as among the least developed in the world. Although they have robust natural resource endowments, political instability may make rapid economic development difficult, even if they liberate themselves from the CFA Franc system.
Furthermore, the three states face violence perpetrated by Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, including the Islamic State Sahel Province. In Burkina Faso alone, 2.1 million people have been displaced by violence. These ongoing violent crises are a major concern for many humanitarian groups. Without the accountability provided by ECOWAS institutions like the ECOWAS Court of Justice, crimes against humanity committed by violent actors in the region—including Africa Corps (formerly known as the Wagner Group), Malian Armed Forces, and various local militias—will go unchecked.
Though the situation may seem bleak, the new AES alliance could allow the three states to reach common ground using their shared history, porous borders, and mutual goals to build a new, more sustainable collective security arrangement in the future. However, according to analysis by the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect, the challenges the three states face may be too great to overcome.
As ECOWAS reaches its 50-year anniversary, the departure of these three Sahel states sends ominous shocks through Africa’s strongest regional bloc. Many onlookers worry about the stability of the region and what this means for the future. Human rights advocates, in particular, see that the already grim situation in the three countries is likely to deteriorate.