{"id":20198,"date":"2024-07-09T13:04:57","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T13:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=20198"},"modified":"2024-07-09T13:04:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T13:04:57","slug":"senegals-leader-asked-to-reunite-ecowas-bloc-split-by-coups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=20198","title":{"rendered":"Senegal\u2019s leader asked to reunite ECOWAS bloc split by coups"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 8 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

Senegal\u2019s President Basirou Diomaye Faye, Africa\u2019s youngest, is suddenly faced with the huge challenge of reuniting a weakened regional bloc that is older than him.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old Faye was tasked on Sunday with getting the military junta-ruled Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso back to ECOWAS at the bloc\u2019s summit in Nigeria\u2019s capital Abuja.<\/p>\n

The three nations left ECOWAS and formed their own alliance after the military takeovers fractured their relations with West African neighbors.<\/p>\n

As a peace envoy supported by Togolese President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, Faye is seen as possibly the best among heads of state for a mission to try to woo the three nations back to the fold of regional cooperation.<\/p>\n

Beyond the appeal of security and economic collaboration,\u00a0ECOWAS\u2019s goodwill has waned\u00a0in recent years, said Afolabi Adekaiyaoja, a research analyst with the West Africa-focused Centre for Democracy and Development. But the new role offers Faye an opportunity to possibly seek reforms for \u201ca more sustainable and self-reliant\u201d ECOWAS, Adekaiyaoja said.<\/p>\n

Faye also represents the opposite of what the three military leaders claim they are against.<\/p>\n

He had not been elected when ECOWAS, founded in 1975,\u00a0imposed the severe sanctions on Niger\u00a0following a coup last July.<\/p>\n

Niger cited the sanctions as one of the reasons for leaving the bloc. Also, Faye\u2019s\u00a0victory\u00a0in this year\u2019s election that was certified as credible stood in contrast to rigged polls in the region.<\/p>\n

At home, Faye is reviewing the old ties that the junta leaders claim have stifled West Africa\u2019s development, though Senegal remains a key ally for the West.<\/p>\n

Under Faye\u2019s leadership, Senegalese officials are renegotiating contracts with foreign operators in the country and, according to Finance Minister Abdourahmane Sarr, are \u201caiming to free ourselves from the ties of dependency in our public policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is exactly what the junta wants to hear, analysts say. Since ousting the democratic governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the generals have severed military and economic ties with traditional Western partners such as the U.S. and France, saying they had not benefited their countries.<\/p>\n

The shift has opened the window for\u00a0Russia to expand its footprint\u00a0in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike the other heads of state, he (Faye) claims sovereignty and a break with the old order,\u201d said Seidik Abba, a Sahel specialist and president of the International Center for Reflection for Studies.<\/p>\n

Age is also not just a number in the case of Faye, a former tax inspector. Even as the youngest president in Africa, he is still older than three of the four current military leaders in the region.<\/p>\n

At Sunday\u2019s ECOWAS meeting in Nigeria, Faye was still among the youngest. Sitting across him was Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo, who at 80 is just four years younger than Faye\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

When he visited Nigeria in May, the Senegalese leader touted his age as an \u201casset\u201d that can help open a window for dialogue with the neighbours.<\/p>\n

Faye\u2019s task to dialogue with the three countries would still not be easy, according to Abba, the Sahel specialist.<\/p>\n

He said the three have wider concerns about the operations of ECOWAS, which they say faces interference from foreign countries like France, their former colonial ruler.<\/p>\n

There is also a question of how much freedom Faye and the Togolese president would have in their role as envoys under an ECOWAS that has just reelected Nigerian President Bola Tinubu as its chairman.<\/p>\n

Their success would depend on \u201chow best the different leaders can coordinate and agree\u201d on the issues, said Adekaiyaoja from the Centre for Democracy and Development.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ:<\/strong><\/p>\n

ECOWAS officially suspends Niger over coup<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Coup plotters forming alliance to defend themselves against ECOWAS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

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Senegal\u2019s President Basirou Diomaye Faye, Africa\u2019s youngest, is suddenly faced with the huge challenge of reuniting a weakened regional bloc that is older than him. The 44-year-old Faye was tasked… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}