Fred Muvunyi

Burkina Faso🇧🇫,Mali🇲🇱and Niger🇳🇪, all junta-led states, have withdrawn from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with immediate effect, after 49 years of existence in the regional bloc. The three states say ECOWAS has moved away from "the ideals of its founding fathers and spirit of Pan-Africanism" and the bloc has been captured under the "influence of foreign powers, betraying its founding principles" and has become a "threat to its member states and its populations whose happiness it is supposed to ensure," Colonel Amadou Abdramane, Niger junta spokesman, said in the statement. Captain Ibrahim Traoré🇧🇫, Colonel Assimi Goita🇲🇱 and Brigadier Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani🇳🇪say ECOWAS which is currently under the leadership of the Nigerian🇳🇬President Bola Tinubu has "adopted an irrational and unacceptable posture by imposing illegal, illegitimate, inhumane and irresponsible sanctions in iolation of its own texts."