Ecowas Under Pressure to Reform

Following recent military coups in the region, the regional body Ecowas - once considered Africa's most institutionally developed organization - began to show signs of lack of authority and ineffectiveness. The problems within the bloc became evident when three Sahel countries, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, in January declared their withdrawal from ECOWAS, creating a crisis within the group. Pundits say ECOWAS must now make "profound changes" to the way it operates or this could mean the bloc's "systematic disappearance".

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is made up of fifteen member countries.

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