Faye Is Required By Ecowas To Confer With Burkina Faso, Mali, And Niger

The stability of the area, which has been jeopardized by the three military-led members’ decision to leave the group in January, is under jeopardy. On Sunday, the shattered regional bloc of West Africa urged Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye to initiate talks with these governments.

The ECOWAS bloc designated Mr. Faye as its ambassador to meet with Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, which created their own union after their various coups severed links with their neighbors, during its summit in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

It was not immediately clear what the dialogue’s terms were. At the summit, Omar Alieu Touray, president of the ECOWAS Commission, stated that the president of Senegal, who emerged as Africa’s youngest leader following his election victory in March, “has all the qualifications required to serve as a facilitator.”

The day prior, at their summit, the three coup-affected nations had already said they had “irrevocably turned their backs on ECOWAS”. This is the first time that ECOWAS has experienced such a loss of members in its almost 50-year existence.

Faye’s mission is significant, according to analysts, given the circumstances of an unparalleled regional crisis. Due to ongoing regional tensions, it is unlikely to be fruitful anytime soon, according to Karim Manuel, an Economist Intelligence Unit analyst specializing on the Middle East and Africa.