Newscasts - Could West Africa's 'Brexit' spell trouble for the region?

Shin-Etsu Chemical

31/01/2024 14:10

Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_a4tek4fw&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2024:newsml_RW639630012024RP1_K15&pageId=Newscasts
Source: 'Reuters - General news videos'

Description: David Doyle examines how trade, geopolitics and the lives of
millions of people could all be affected if Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger all
leave the West African bloc ECOWAS.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3Um29J1

Video Transcript:

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have said they are quitting West Africa's
economic and political bloc ECOWAS. The move, by three countries who underwent
coups in recent years, could potentially reverse decades of integration, with
profound implications for the region. Firstly, there's ECOWAS. Despite
sanctions, negotiations and threats of military intervention, the 15-member
bloc had already not managed to push Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali into a
timetable for returning to democracy.

Yeah, this definitely weakens ECOWAS.

Andrew Lebovich is a research fellow at the Clingendael Institute's Conflict
Research Unit.

So already ECOWAS appeared very weak. Some people saw ECOWAS, and see ECOWAS,
as very ineffectual. And so certainly this undermines ECOWAS even more.

As they announced their departure, the three junta-led countries accused
ECOWAS of abandoning its founding ideals and falling under foreign influence.
But there could also be significant ramifications for Mali, Burkina Faso and
Niger. There's the region's trade and services flows, worth nearly $150
billion a year. Niger, for example, relies on its richer neighbor and current
ECOWAS chair Nigeria for 80% of its trade, according to Seidik Abba, president
of the Paris-based CIRES think tank. Quitting ECOWAS is the silliest own goal
since the United Kingdom voted for Brexit, said the head of macro-strategy at
London-based FIM Partners, Charlie Robertson. He said the three countries were
already among the poorest in the world, and that together they accounted for
just 8% of the bloc's GDP. Now increased tariffs and new restrictions on the
movement of goods, money and people could be on the way. And that has a
potential impact on millions of Malians, Burkinabes and Nigeriens who settled
in neighboring states. Ivory Coast alone is home to more than 5 million people
from the three nations. For now, those diasporas enjoy visa-free travel and
the right to work. But this dispute is also one with significance beyond West
Africa's borders. Russia has been expanding its regional influence at the
expense of Nigeria, the United States and former colonial power France. That
includes through varying degrees of military cooperation with Mali, Burkina
Faso and Niger, who had complained that ECOWAS offered little support to
tackle jihadist insurgencies in the Sahel. The process of leaving the bloc
could take time, leaving the door open for negotiation. But for now what has
been exposed through the ECOWAS crisis is a growing rift between
Western-backed elected governments and military-run nations who are
increasingly turning to the likes of Russia