Coups: ECOWAS sanctions don’t work – Security analyst

An international security expert has berated the decision by the leadership of the Economic Committee of West African States (ECOWAS) to all the time place wholesale sanctions on countries that have their democracies taken over by military juntas.

According to the security expert, these sanctions and restrictions have not worked and fast becoming irrelevant in reversing the trend of coups in the sub-region.

Mr. Sulley Ibrahim chided the leadership of ECOWAS while speaking about the coup in Burkina Faso with Nana Ama Agyarko on Accra 100.5 FM’s evening news on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.

He was of the view that many of the sanctions and restrictions are untargeted, adding that the wholesale sanctions have not served any purpose as part of the measures to prevent coups in the sub-region.

He explained that if the sanctions are not targeted, it turns to make the civilians support the military leaders.

“If the ECOWAS leaders continue to issue many of these wholesale sanctions like the closure of borders among others, it will not serve as a deterrent in the sub-region,” he warned.

“If the issuance of wholesale sanctions were effective, Robert Mugabe would not have survived all these years,” he added.

He called for sanctions that will distance the civilians from the military leadership.

He stated that many of the ECOWAS sanctions have proved to be of no effect on the leaders of the coup as well as the citizens.

He called on the leadership of ECOWAS to pay attention to the underlying factors that result in a coup.