Beitrag vom 10.06.2024

Financial Times

Keep Ecowas out of internal regional politics, Benin minister says

West Africa’s main economic club should focus on economic integration and the fight against poverty and terrorism and steer clear of interfering in the internal politics of member states, Benin’s foreign minister has said.

Shegun Adjadi Bakari told the Financial Times that the Economic Community of West African States should be reformed and that reaching agreement on how to respond to political crises was paramount. “Nobody can say we can keep Ecowas as it is,” said Bakari, a former Société Générale executive who was appointed foreign minister last year. The bloc’s members should “sit down together to find a new consensus when it comes to internal politics”, although Benin believed it “should not interfere”.

Aanu Adeoye in Lagos

Bakari was speaking as Ecowas, founded 49 years ago to foster economic development in the region, is still struggling to respond to a spate of military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger since 2020.

Ecowas has responded haphazardly to the takeovers, which began when soldiers ousted
elected Malian leader Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020. The country experienced a
second coup nine months later. Guinea’s putsch came in September 2021, while Burkina Faso experienced two coups in 2022.
In those cases, Ecowas imposed minimal sanctions and worked with junta leaders to set
timelines for a democratic transition. But following international criticism that it had been too lenient, the bloc imposed sweeping sanctions on Niger after the head of the country’s presidential guard deposed and detained President Mohamed Bazoum last July, threatening to invade if he was not released.

Several of Benin's west African neighbours have been hit by coups since 2020
African nations experiencing successful putsches in the past four years
Niger
Benin
Mali
Guinea
Burkina
Faso

The threat was not realised and the ruling junta remains in power, while Bazoum is still in
detention — although Bakari said “work” was ongoing to secure his freedom. Sanctions were lifted in February.

The minister argued Ecowas needed to change its approach given its lack of success in
restoring democracy in the coup-hit countries. The junta in Burkina Faso recently extended
its term by another five years.

Benin’s foreign minister Shegun Adjadi Bakari says Ecowas should be reformed and that reaching agreement on how to respond to political crises is paramount

“In Mali we set a transition timetable. Four years later, is there a solution? No. In Guinea and
Burkina Faso, we did the same thing, and no solution,” Bakari said. With Niger, “we decided
to put sanctions in place . . . We received a very big backlash and there’s no result. We have to
ask ourselves at some point if our methodology is the right one.”
Asked whether a retreat from upholding democracy could embolden potential coup plotters,
Bakari stressed that Benin was opposed to putsches, partly because of its own history of such
power grabs until it became a democracy in 1990. “We believe a coup is not the right way to come to power,” he said.
But, he argued, Ecowas needed to follow the example of other regional groupings on the
continent, such as those in east and southern Africa, that rarely meddled in internal politics.
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announced in January they were quitting Ecowas in response to
sanctions and pressure to hold elections. The process takes a year and regional leaders are in
talks to convince the trio to stay.

The situation contrasts with events in Gambia in 2017, when pressure from the bloc, including
Ecowas troops massed on the country’s border, forced dictator Yahya Jammeh into exile as he
threatened to cling to power despite losing an election.
Benin and Niger are now embroiled in a spat over the latter’s refusal to reopen its side of their
shared border despite the end of sanctions, with Niamey citing security concerns. The
impasse is hampering Niger’s own exports of its oil through a new 2,000km pipeline from the
landlocked country to the port of Seme in Benin.
“The border on our side is open for traffic and free movement of people, and Niger has to
open its side,” Bakari said.
Coups across west and central Africa have ushered in an era of warmer regional ties with
Russia as countries seek alternatives to partnerships with the US and former colonial power
France. US forces in Niger are scheduled to leave by September and France has been forced to
withdraw its troops in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Washington is said to be in discussions with other west African states on establishing a new
base, with Benin mooted by western officials as a possible location.
Bakari declined to be drawn on potential talks with the US, saying: “There is no foreign
military base in Benin. But even if that was the case, we are a sovereign country.”