West African regional bloc ECOWAS on Sunday threatened “targeted sanctions” on anyone obstructing Guinea-Bissau’s return to civilian rule following last month’s coup.
The announcement came as presidents from across the region met Sunday in Nigeria for a bi-annual meeting whose agenda was dominated by two recent coup attempts: a successful military takeover in Guinea-Bissau and a failed putsch in Benin.
“The authorities shall impose targeted sanctions on individuals or groups of persons that obstruct the transition process,” ECOWAS commission president Omar Alieu Touray told reporters at the end of summit, held in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
The twin disruptions of civilian rule — last month in Guinea-Bissau and a week ago in Benin — have rattled ECOWAS.
The bloc was previously hit with a string of coups between 2020 and 2023 in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger — all of which are still under junta control.
“The events of the last few weeks have shown in concrete terms what regional solidarity means,” Touray said earlier in the day, at the opening ceremony of the heads of state summit.
The summit, held in a conference hall on the bucolic and highly secured campus surrounding the presidential villa at Aso Rock, was organised prior to the two recent coup attempts, but they are high on the agenda.
– Sahel security on agenda –
Presidents gathered for the meeting were set to discuss a recent ECOWAS mission to Guinea-Bissau and “the situation in the Republic of Benin”, according to the programme.
Trade liberalisation measures and “update on the transition process” in Guinea were also on the agenda.
Also on the priority list is security in the Sahel region, where jihadist groups are waging insurgencies in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
Under junta rule the three countries left ECOWAS and formed their own group, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Last week, Touray called for negotiations with the AES over shared security concerns as the conflict continues to spread south.
“No border can insulate us from violence,” Sierra Leone President Julius Bio, who currently holds ECOWAS’s rotating chairmanship, said Sunday.
Heads of state from Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, suspended after their military takeovers, were not present at the summit.
Nigerian president Bola Tinubu was not in attendance, and was instead represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
In addition to military takeovers, democratic backsliding has also dogged civilian governments in west Africa.
In October, Ivory Coast elected President Alassane Ouattara to a fourth term in an election that saw his rivals barred.
Both Bio and Tinubu’s 2023 elections sparked complaints of irregularities.
