Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso’s withdrawal from ECOWAS: The Revised ECOWAS Treaty and withdrawal with ‘immediate effect’

Author: Marko Svicevic
Lecturer and Researcher, Centre for International Humanitarian and Operational Law, Faculty of Law, Palacky University, Olomouc

On 28 January 2024, the military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso simultaneously announced their withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with ‘immediate effect’. Although the move is not all too surprising given rising tensions between the bloc and the three States, it is a historical and significant development in the region. All three States were suspended from ECOWAS following military takeovers; and they had faced varying degrees of sanctions in the last three years.

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Some rays of light on the plight of irregular migration within Africa

Author: Cristiano d’Orsi
Research Fellow and Lecturer at the South African Research Chair in International Law (SARCIL), University of Johannesburg

In 2018 alone, hundreds of witnesses confirmed more than 1 000 migrant deaths on the African continent. But researchers estimate that these numbers represent only a fraction of the overall number of deaths of people on the move in Africa.[1] According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), during the first three months of 2019, 98 migrants died in Africa (28 in North Africa and 70 in the Horn of Africa, mostly from drowning in the Red Sea whilst hoping to reach Saudi shores).[2] In 2018, the number of fatalities on the continent amounted to 1 401, mostly presumed to come from the Horn.[3]

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