This Alliance United West Africa for Decades. Now Countries Are Backing Out. – The New York Times

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Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are withdrawing from a 49-year-old regional alliance that has allowed goods and nearly 400 million people to travel freely across a tightly connected region.
By Elian Peltier
Reporting from Dakar, Senegal
Three West African countries have broken away from a 15-member regional bloc that has long ensured free movement of people and goods among its tightly knit economies, further destabilizing an area that is home to nearly 400 million people and threatened by violent insurgents.
The leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger last weekend announced their “irrevocable and immediate” withdrawal from the bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS. They said that they are creating their own confederation.
The three countries, all ruled by military leaders friendly to Russia, span more than half of the bloc’s geographic area and are among its most populous. However, they are not the region’s largest economies, and as landlocked nations, all three depend on access to ports in coastal countries for overseas trade.
“Our region is facing the risk of disintegration,” Omar Alieu Touray, the president of ECOWAS’s executive arm, said on Sunday.
The bloc has appointed Senegal’s newly elected president as a mediator in the crisis. But experts say that the breakup is now underway — and the consequences for people in the region may be stark.
Three countries announced their intent to leave the Ecomonic Community of West African States.
Algeria
Libya
Mauritania
Mali
Niger
Cape Verde
Senegal
Gambia
Burkina
Faso
Guinea–Bissau
Guinea
Benin
Nigeria
Ivory
Coast
Togo
Sierra Leone
Ghana
Liberia
Cameroon
Map
extent
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
Three countries announced their intent to leave the Ecomonic Community of West African States.
Algeria
Libya
Cape
Verde
Mauritania
Mali
Niger
Senegal
Burkina
Faso
Gambia
Guinea–Bissau
Guinea
Benin
Sierra Leone
Ivory
Coast
Nigeria
Liberia
Togo
Cameroon
Ghana
By Veronica Penney
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