The military junta in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger on Sunday withdrew their countries from the Economic Communities of West African States, ECOWAS.
The trio described the regional bloc as a ‘threat’ to member-states.
The leaders of the three Sahel nations said in a statement they had decided to you’ll out of ECOWAS “without delay”, adding that it was a “sovereign decision” to do so.
The regional bloc suspended the trio, which were founding members of the ECOWAS in 1975, had been suspended from the bloc, following military incursion yo power, as a measure to restore civilian rule in the three countries.
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ECOWAS also imposed sanctions on them but the junta said the sanctions were an “irrational and unacceptable posture” at a time when the three “have decided to take their destiny in hand”.
In a joint statement, leaders of three nations, who have hardened their positions in recent months and joined forces in an “Alliance of Sahel States”, said the 15-member ECOWAS was “under the influence of foreign powers, betraying its founding principles, has become a threat to member states and peoples”.
Furthermore, they accused the ECOWAS of failing to help them tackle the menace of jihadists that swept into Mali from 2012 and then on to Burkina and Niger.