West African bloc appoints Senegal's president as special envoy to breakaway confederation

By Timothy Olanrewaju

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Senegal's President Bassirou Faye was appointed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a special mediator to persuade the breakaway confederation of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to rescind their decision.

At the 65th ordinary session of ECOWAS on Sunday in Nigeria's capital Abuja, the bloc appointed the Senegalese leader to lead the mediation team in collaboration with Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe.

The bloc designated Faye as ECOWAS “facilitator in engagement with the Alliance for the Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger)," the regional body said in a joint communique at the end of the summit Sunday night.

Faye was attending the ECOWAS meeting for the first time since his election as the president of the West African nation in March.

The bloc's leaders met on Sunday after three military-ruled nations of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger on Saturday signed a pact to form a coalition called the Alliance of Sahel States.

They withdrew from the West African bloc in January after the regional bloc’s tough stand against coups.

Originally a bloc of 15 member nations, ECOWAS now has only 12 members since the three nations broke away.

The ECOWAS summit expressed “disappointment” over the lack of progress in the earlier engagement with the breakaway faction.

It also ordered the bloc's commission to “develop a contingency plan should mediation with the three countries failed.”