Ghana’s newly appointed leader announced on Tuesday a renewed effort to bring Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger back into the West African bloc ECOWAS after the three junta-led nations withdrew earlier in the year.
President John Mahama stated that his government has appointed a special envoy tasked with initiating high-level discussions with the three countries following their departure from the political and economic organisation.
Speaking at the launch of ECOWAS’s 50th-anniversary celebrations in Accra, Ghana’s capital, Mahama described the withdrawal as “a regrettable development.”
He emphasised the need for “understanding, dialogue, and a willingness to listen and to engage” rather than isolation or blame.
This initiative follows similar efforts by Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who earlier this month indicated that he had exhausted all possible means to persuade the three countries to rejoin the bloc without success.
ECOWAS had reportedly invited the junta leaders to attend the Accra event, and while officials acknowledged the presence of representatives from the three nations, the junta leaders themselves did not attend.
Mahama, who assumed office in January, affirmed that he has made “prioritised diplomatic re-engagement with our Sahelian neighbours.”
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger are currently governed by juntas that took power through coups between 2020 and 2023. Since then, they have distanced themselves from former colonial power France and forged closer ties with Russia.
These three Sahel region countries, which quit ECOWAS at the start of the year citing the bloc’s alleged subservience to France, have formed their own alliance called the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), initially a defense pact established in 2023 that now aims for greater integration.
All three nations have been grappling with a decade-long surge in attacks by terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, violence that previous governments, despite assistance from French forces, have been unable to eliminate. Together, they constitute a vast area in northwest Africa, approximately four times the size of France.