Leaders of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS will meet in Freetown, Sierra Leone on Sunday for the mid-year summit of 2026.
This comes seven months after they met in Abuja at a time the bloc was hit by another coup – regarded as state-managed by an incumbent, Embolo Sissoko, who had lost re-election in Guinea-Bissau.
The host, President Bio of Sierra Leone has been putting finishing touches to the venue of the summit. The cohesion of the bloc continues to be the main talking point.
It has 12 members following the pull out by the 3 Sahelian states of Mail, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic.
And Guinea Bissau remains suspended from the bloc after a coup – believed to have been engineered by its ECOWAS former chairman, Embolo Sissoko after the result showed he had lost his re-election bid.
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The attempted coup in Benin Republic in which the now former president, Patrice Tallon was just about a week before last December’s summit shows the fragile situation in some member-states.
These political transition issues are not the only issues as regional security threats and terrorism stare the bloc in the face, even as it has tried to bolster its defences.
Jihadists and Islamist groups which seek to oust the three junta in the erstwhile member-states, continue to attempt to destabilise the bloc.
The bloc’s 400 million peoples are also feeling the impact of global economic squeeze – trade within themselves remains somewhat below what is envisaged despite all subscribing to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement Framework, AfCFTA.
How effective has the resolution that intra-bloc air travel costs be cut by 25 percent?
So, there is a lot as 11 leaders or their representatives meet on Sunday with the pace and status of institutional reforms of ECOWAS bodies also on the agenda.
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(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
