During the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) extraordinary meeting on Sunday 9th January, the organisation announced increased sanctions on Mali and the members of its ruling military junta that took power back in May 2021. Rejecting Malian incumbent Colonel Assimi Goita’s proposed four-year plan for elections by 2025, ECOWAS insisted that Bamako should respect the initial electoral agenda set for February 2022 and announced drastic economic sanctions. These include the closure of land and air borders, the suspension of non-essential financial transactions and the freezing of state assets in ECOWAS commercial banks and the West African Economic and Monetary Union’s (WAMU) central bank.

This development will likely generate significant economic and political risk threatening regional stability. While previous sanctions predominantly targeted members of the junta, this escalation will significantly hamper transnational trade and thus harm populations either side of Malian borders. Following Goita’s first coup in August 2020, analysts already suggested that a WAMU embargo would asphyxiate the Malian population considering “35.6% of all Malian imports come from WAMU countries, especially Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, two countries that will therefore be hit indirectly by the financial lockdown”.

ECOWAS’ move also further politically isolates a country wreaked by Islamist insurgency. At a time when violent extremist organisations (VEO) permeate West African borders, the economic and political toll of these sanctions on Bamako’s military capabilities will bolster the Russo-Malian rapprochement. Indeed, with French troops withdrawing from Mali since the May 2021 coup, Mali has reportedly relied on Russian private military contractor Wagner Group to fight VEOs.

While large-scale sanctions will undeniably damage regional economic and political stability, ECOWAS is hereby showing strength in upholding its core values. Having come under harsh international criticism over its initial lack of reaction to the May 2021 coup, the regional body now signals its commitment to safeguarding democracy and the rule of law in West Africa. This is all the more crucial considering Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole has witnessed more coups in 2021 alone than in any other year in the past two decades.