Meeting under tension at ECOWAS. The West African Community is meeting urgently, Thursday February 8, against a backdrop of political crisis in Senegal and significant differences with the juntas in power in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The West African organization's Mediation and Security Council announced that foreign ministers would meet in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, to "discuss current security and political issues in the region." The presence of the Senegalese minister is not confirmed at this time.

After the postponement of the Senegalese presidential election, ECOWAS urged Dakar to respect its initial electoral calendar. But it is facing more and more criticism which calls into question its influence over its member states.

The reputation of the nearly 50-year-old regional organization is at stake, particularly after the coup in Niger in July 2023. The threat of ECOWAS military intervention in that country appears to no longer be at stake. agenda, while the deposed president Mohamed Bazoum has still not been reinstated in his functions and remains detained.  

The postponement of the Senegalese presidential election is a "new crisis that ECOWAS does not need", Djidenou Steve Kpoton, an independent Beninese political consultant, told AFP. “His helplessness in the face of the situation is obvious.”

Also read: West Africa: why are Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso divorcing ECOWAS?

“Why don’t they exclude Senegal?”

Senegal, one of the most stable democracy in the region, is experiencing its most acute political crisis in decades. Triggered by the postponement of the February 25 presidential election by President Macky Sall on Saturday, it raises concerns about the repercussions in the region.

Lawmakers voted almost unanimously on Monday in favor of the postponement until December 15, after the expulsion of opposition members by security forces – who were unable to vote. 

In a press release, ECOWAS invited Senegal to “urgently take the necessary measures to restore the electoral calendar”.

For Rama Salla Dieng, lecturer in African studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, ECOWAS publishes press releases, "but when the time has come to act and enforce the principles for which it has been created, it does nothing. “Why don’t they exclude Senegal?” asks the Senegalese academic.

“A coup is a coup, there were elections planned with a set date. We have the impression that they are really powerless,” adds Rama Salla Dieng.

The option of mediation

One of the powers ECOWAS has is to impose economic sanctions, as it did against Mali and Niger following recent coups.

At the end of January, the two countries as well as Burkina Faso – already suspended from ECOWAS – announced their joint withdrawal from the West African organization, thus aggravating the diplomatic headache.

Also read: Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso leave ECOWAS: “buried” democratic transitions

And on Wednesday, the three Sahelian countries made it known that they intended to leave now and not in a year as stipulated in the organization's texts.

Experts believe that Senegal is still far from the stage where ECOWAS is likely to impose financial sanctions on it.

“What can be put in place is more mediation,” Idayat Hassan, affiliated with the American Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP. “ECOWAS is in trouble, but this is nothing new. West Africa was one of the most coup-prone regions in the world before democratic consolidation began to take hold” .

For Idayat Hassan, the regional organization had shown itself “capable of adapting, resilient and capable of facing most of these challenges” in the past.

“Not wise for anyone to advance military action”

ECOWAS has already intervened militarily, notably in Gambia in 2017 when outgoing President Yahya Jammeh refused to leave power after losing the elections.

It would “not be wise for anyone to advance military action” in the region, said Bamidele Olajide, professor of political science at the University of Lagos.

“We cannot continue as if nothing had happened,” judge Rama Salla Dieng, who called for a public consultation on the role of the organization.

“We have to be very pragmatic,” she adds. “If people think that ECOWAS no longer needs to exist, then do we still need ECOWAS?”

With AFP

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