By Mark Longyen
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) says it is committed to strengthening relations with breakaway Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, notwithstanding the trust deficit between the two sides.
ECOWAS President, Dr Omar Touray, stated this while presenting the 2025 Annual Community Report on the State of the Community to the ECOWAS Parliament during its 2025 Second Ordinary Session in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the annual report offers the ECOWAS President the opportunity to comprehensively review and brief the parliamentarians ondevelopments across key sectors within the region.
The report usually covers a wide range of political, economic, security, agricultural, humanitarian support, economic integration, public health issues, among others, across the region in the year ending.
Touray said that the withdrawal of the Sahel States from ECOWAS had strained cooperation on peace and security between the two sides and solicited intensified efforts to build trust between them.
He said: “While ECOWAS continues to collaborate with the three countries on trade, free movement of persons, and other existing protocols, security cooperation has remained a major challenge.
“Our brothers and sisters from the three countries are prepared to work with us in all areas, but in the area of peace and security, trust remains the biggest challenge.”
According to him, ECOWAS has been engaging global partners, including the U.S. and Russia, diplomatically, to bridge the trust deficit, which deepened divisions.
He stated that the diplomatic efforts had paid off as relations between ECOWAS and the Alliance of the Sahel States (AES) had improved in the most recent months.
Touray added, “In the past eight months, you no longer hear hostile statements being exchanged.”
The commission’s president said that both parties had deliberately agreed to maintain the status quo, until a new agreement is concluded.
He said that the past eight months were devoid of hostile statements being exchanged between them.
Touray said the ECOWAS Council of Ministers had, however, directed that all nationals of the countries working in ECOWAS institutions should vacate their posts.
“Managers and P5-level officials left on Sept. 30, other staff will exit by 15 April 2026, and the Commission is working to replace them efficiently,” he said.
The president also announced that the long-awaited ECOWAS single currency, Eco, would be launched in 2027, even if it begins as a virtual currency, similar to how the Euro was introduced.
He said that all the primary and secondary convergence criteria and milestones to that effect had already been identified, with member states expected to work toward meeting them.
On Guinea-Bissau’s recent crisis, Touray warned against pressure that could lead to the announcement of fake electoral results, noting that Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission had confirmed that results were already destroyed.
He also warned that ECOWAS was capable of deploying forces rapidly, noting that both the Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia missions were assembled quickly with contributions from Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal.
Touray, however, maintained that, notwithstanding the formidable challenges confronting ECOWAS, it remained an indisputable continental benchmark and role model, adding that other regional blocs usually come to learn from ECOWAS.(NAN)
Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani
