Publications

The type of relationship that can be seen among the AES countries could be based on three aspects. First, the failure of ECOWAS to manage the Malian case after the first coup, on August 18, 2020, leading to a second coup, on May 24, 2021, could appear to have created conditions favorable to coups, first in Burkina Faso and then in Niger. Second, Mali has served as an example, a source of inspiration for the other two countries—particularly in terms of capturing popular support—that have duplicated all the measures applied by the Malian transitional government. Third, the association of the three countries, which now share a common destiny, has greatly strengthened them vis-à-vis ECOWAS, which has been weakened as a result. ECOWAS, as soon as the three countries jointly announced their withdrawal from it, lifted all the sanctions it had imposed on Niger. It seems to have abandoned the agenda for a return to constitutional order that had been agreed to with the three governments, which now have no clear deadline for the end of the transition and the elections.