Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara and his Ghanaian counterpart John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday called on Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to rejoin the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS), after they quit earlier this year.
The military juntas who took over in Bamako, Ouagadougou and Niamey after coups between 2020 and 2023 left the West African bloc at the end of January.
They have since allied themselves in a confederation called the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
But Mahama, on a visit to Abidjan, offered to be a “bridge” between ECOWAS and AES “to see how we can work with them so that they not only remain within our subregion, but also do the transition to constitutional democracy”.
Outtara told a joint news conference: “I hope that President Mahama’s appeal will be heard by these three brother countries, that we can continue together within ECOWAS”.
The split came after the July 2023 coup in Niger, when the west African bloc threatened military intervention and slapped heavy economic sanctions on Niamey, which have since been lifted.
The trio in turn accused ECOWAS among other things of not having helped it enough in the fight against jihadist violence and of being subservient to France.
All three have frosty relations with Paris, the former colonial power.
Their decision to leave took effect on January 29 this year.
“We’re prepared to help them to fight terrorism because in our country, we all know that when your neighbour’s house is on fire, you have to help him to quench it before it spreads into your own compound,” said Mahama.
“There’s more that unites us than divides us,” added Mahama, who said he intends to travel to all three countries soon.
Outtara said ECOWAS member states backed him to bring Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger back into the fold “because the future of west Africa depends on it”.
Several mediation missions were led by Togo and Senegal to try to prevent the split but the military regimes said their departure was “irreversible”.
Outtara and Mahama’s talks on Wednesday also touched on defence, security and the cocoa economy, with the two neighbours among the world’s leading producers.
