The heads of state and government of the eleven non-suspended ECOWAS member countries are meeting for a new extraordinary summit in Abuja. Leaders will have a busy agenda on the table. Here are the main issues of this summit this Saturday, February 24.
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With our correspondent in Abuja, Moses Gomis
Many questions are on the menu today for the extraordinary summit of ECOWAS in full swing turbulence zone :will the sanctions imposed on Niger following the putsch last July and the sequestration of President Bazoum be lifted? What position will the conference of heads of state adopt in the face of the immediate exit from ECOWAS announced by Burkina, Mali and Niger? Will the situation in Senegal be addressed, even if the agenda is sufficiently evasive to accommodate the sensitivities of the Senegalese delegation? Barely three days later the solemn appeal from Abuja launched by General Yakubu Gowonthe last survivor among its founding fathers, ECOWAS will experience a new turning point.
THE Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger will still be absent. On the other hand, part of the future of ECOWAS will depend on the words of the final communiqué of this extraordinary summit of February 24, 2024.
Eleven countries still active members will draft this text. Will they be the accelerators of the exit announced and assumed by the three States of the Sahel Alliance? Or will they find words of reconciliation towards a trio of brotherly but openly secessionist countries?
The case of prisoner Mohamed Bazoum on the table
Furthermore, less than eight months after threatening to deploy an armed force in Niger, the eleven still active ECOWAS countries will have to decide whether or not to continue the blockade still in force on this country.
The heads of state will also have on the table a letter written by President Bazoum’s lawyers, on his status, on his situation and that of his entourage. His lawyers renew their request for his release. In a statement Friday, they called for “ the responsibility of the Member States » in order to apply court decisions. On December 15, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ordered the release of President Bazoum. Request rejected by the head of the military regime, General Tiani, for whom the release of the Nigerien leader “ is not on the agenda “.
Niger announced its withdrawal from the regional bloc last month. For Maître Seydou Diagne, coordinator of the collective of lawyers, this withdrawal should not absolve Niamey of its responsibilities: “ Whether she decides to leave ECOWAS or not, she is required, for a year, to respect the decisions of the Court of Justice which are binding on everyone. We demand a firm and unequivocal statement demanding from the junta the release of our clients, in accordance with the court’s decision. This is the minimum we expect from this conference “, he explains to RFI.
Finally, what about a frank and sincere discussion on the Senegalese political situation in the presence of Macky Sall? A head of state of Senegal held like his peers, by the force of the words of Yakubu Gowon, to participate in an unmissable ECOWAS summit.