ECOWAS:
Member countries of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will meet to discuss their next steps, after Niger’s military junta defied their deadline to reinstate the country’s ousted president.
- ECOWAS is the West African nation’s regional group which was established in 1975 through the Lagos Treaty.
- Aim is to have a single common currency and create a single, large trading bloc in areas of industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, financial issues, and social and cultural matters.
- Member countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’ Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo. Around 400 million people live in this region.
- These countries have both cultural and geopolitical ties and shared common economic interest.
- Headquarters: Abuja, Nigeria.
- Beyond the goals of economic cooperation, ECOWAS has attempted to quell military conflicts in the region.
- ECOWAS also operated a regional peacekeeping operation known as ECOMOG, led by Nigeria in the 1990s and early 2000s.
