ECOWAS Lifts Sanctions On Niger, Others

Information reaching the OsunReporters News confirmed that the Economic Community of West African States on Saturday lifted economic sanctions on Niger, Mali and Burkina-Faso with immediate effect.

President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Touray, who made this known after hours-long deliberations by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government at an extraordinary summit on the political, peace, and security situation in the region at the State House, Abuja, said it has suspended the closure of the land and air border to Niger, a no-fly zone of all commercial flights.

The resolution also revealed the suspension of the freezing of all financial transactions between ECOWAS states and Niger, including transactions relating to the bloc’s central bank and the unfreezing of all of Niger’s assets at EBID whike also lifted the travel ban on members of the military junta and their families. The authority also lifted sanctions on the election of Mali citizens to ECOWAS positions.

According to Touray, the move is “based on humanitarian considerations due to lent and the approaching month of Ramadan.”

ECOWAS also lifted sanctions on Guinea, inviting all four countries to attend technical consultative meetings of ECOWAS going forward. It also asked its withdrawing member states to reconsider their decision in view of the benefits enjoyed by their citizens.