Good news! ECOWAS, the group of countries in West Africa, has decided to lift the sanctions, like not allowing travel and trade, that they imposed on Niger after the coup last year. Omar Alieu Touray, who leads ECOWAS, said this decision aims to make things easier for the people who were suffering because of these sanctions.
But, Touray also said that some specific sanctions for certain people and the government will still be there. He said this after the leaders of the countries in ECOWAS met in Abuja, Nigeria’s main city.
The meeting, which happened at an important time, wants to deal with problems right now and also wants to ask Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to think again about leaving ECOWAS because they didn’t like the sanctions.
Bola Tinubu, who is in charge of ECOWAS, talked about how important it is to keep democracy and make sure everyone is doing okay. He asked the countries that want to leave not to see ECOWAS as an enemy and to think about staying.
In addition to lifting the sanctions on Niger, the meeting will also look again at how tough these sanctions are. A former leader of Nigeria, Yakubu Gowon, said it’s time to lift these sanctions and remember that ECOWAS is there to help people.
The part of Africa called the Sahel has a lot of problems with violence and coups. With Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger leaving ECOWAS, it might make things harder in West Africa and split it up.
People who know about these things think that the sanctions and the talk about using the army might have made Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger want to leave ECOWAS. This shows that things are changing in West Africa, and there might be new groups of countries that work together, changing how things have been for a long time.