More than a week after the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council meeting on the coup in Niger, the African body has decided to immediately suspend the country’s participation in all activities of the AU and its organs and institutions until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the nation.
Key points
- Several Western countries have cut aid to Niger due to a July 26 coup that overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.
- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also imposed sanctions and, agreed on a “D-day” to begin a military intervention through an already activated regional strike force.
About ECOWAS
- The Heads of State and Government of fifteen West African Countries established the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) when they signed the ECOWAS Treaty on the 28th of May 1975 in Lagos, Nigeria.
- The ECOWAS Member States are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sénégal and Togo.
- Considered one of the pillars of the African Economic Community, ECOWAS was set up to foster the ideal of collective self-sufficiency for its member states.
- As a trading union, it is also meant to create a single, large trading bloc through economic cooperation.
African Union (AU)
- The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent.
- It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).
- In May 1963, 32 Heads of independent African States met in Addis Ababa Ethiopia to sign the Charter creating Africa’s first post-independence continental institution, The Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
