West Africa regional bloc approves exit timeline for 3 coup-hit member states

Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, third from left, first row, poses with other West African leaders before the start of the ECOWAS meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, on Sunday. West Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS approved Sunday an exit timeline for three coup-hit nations after a nearly yearlong process of mediation to avert the unprecedented disintegration of the grouping. “The authority decides to set the period from 29 January, 2025 to 29 July 2025 as a transitional period and to keep ECOWAS doors open to the three countries during the transition period,” ECOWAS Commission President Omar Alieu Touray said in his closing remarks Sunday at the summit of regional heads of state in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. if it is about free trade, free movement of people, the risk of losing those concessions remains.” On Saturday, the three countries said in a joint statement that while access to their territories would remain visa-free for other West African citizens, they “reserve the right … to refuse entry to any ECOWAS national falling into the category of inadmissible immigrants.” As West Africa’s top political authority since it was formed in 1975, such a division is ECOWAS’ biggest challenge since inception, said Babacar Ndiaye, senior fellow with the Senegal-based Timbuktu Institute for Peace Studies. Allowing the juntas to remain in power “could risk further regional fragmentation” while recognizing them as legitimate authorities would represent “a serious departure from ECOWAS’ founding principles,” Durmaz said.