Double standards on governance rules are straining the credibility of the Ecowas bloc, Facing multiple challenges to their authority, West African leaders are trying to dampen down what seem to be mutually reinforcing crises for their regional organisation. On 28 January came the move by the juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to quit the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), dealing it the heaviest institutional blow since its foundation in 1975.
, Domingo Simões Perreira, leader of the Assembleia Nacional Popular (ANP), Guinea Bissau s parliament, called all deputies to the parliament building on 13 December for the continuation of the session that was interrupted on 4 December by President Umaro Sissoco Embaló s decision to dissolve parliament.
Faction fighting between members of the old ruling party paralyses government and threatens catastrophe for vital cashew exports, A new government took office in mid-August pledging cohabitação (cohabitation). But the cohabitees– parliament and president – look as divided as ever as the economy heads into meltdown. A coalition government dominated by the Plataforma Aliança Inclusiva – Terra Ranka ( Inclusive Alliance Platform – the country takes off! ), which won the 4 June legislative elections, is nominally in charge.
Ouagadougou is set to be the next military regime to invite Russian mercenaries after giving France a month for its troops to leave, Captain Ibrahim Traoré s regime has brushed aside the concerns of fellow members of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and gone even further than Mali and demanded the departure of French troops. At the end of January his government cancelled the 2018 defence agreement governing France s military presence in Burkina Faso, amid signs that it is now turning to Russia, probably the Wagner Group, for support.
At their continental summit in Tunis, Japanese diplomats stepped up the financial and rhetorical rivalry with China, Japan s pledge to direct US$30 billion to Africa in aid, loans and investments over the next three years is part of its plan to boost flows to the continent by 40%, its officials said in Tunisia. The $30bn promise was made by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the opening of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) on 27 August as part of a wider bid to win over Africa to the western alliance.