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Tyson's ECOWAS Occasional Journal - Politics in West Africa

This blog focuses on African Politics in the ECOWAS countries: Benin (where I served in the Peace Corps), Burkina Faso (where I attended FESPACO!), Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire (where I biked my first century), Gambia, Ghana (home of Milly's Backyard!), Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali (home of Sekou Oumarou!), Niger (challenging for vegetarians!), Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo (the only place I ever attended a beauty pageant).

Boko Haram attacks again

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- July 24, 2015

More suicide bombings Wednesday, this time in Gombe in northern Nigeria.

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I'm back! And ECOWAS has some troubles

- August 21, 2024

Wow, it's been a minute since I posted anything in this journal! I'm going to take some time this week to catch the blog up on each country in ECOWAS. Let's start with ECOWAS itself - From The Conversation , The bloc is facing its biggest crisis since it was formed in 1975. Three of its 15 countries – Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali – have broken away and formed an alternative grouping, the Alliance of Sahel States . While Ecowas held a meeting of its members’ heads of state and government in Abuja on 7 July, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali were holding a parallel meeting in Niamey, Niger’s capital. The three countries have vowed not to return to the Ecowas fold. ... Prior to the political crisis tearing at the heart of Ecowas, members of the regional bloc had been talking about creating a common currency. But that took a hit when, on 11 February 2024, the head of Niger’s military junta, General Abdourahmane T...

Drama in Benin's upcoming presidential election UPDATED

- August 26, 2015

Her Spirit may be Rising, but she doesn't seem to be Running Following the three elections coming up this October, there will be two presidential elections in ECOWAS countries at the beginning of 2016: Niger, where first-term President Issoufou is eligible to run again in January, and Benin in February. There's been some interesting drama regarding the Benin race so let's take a look. President Yayi Boni is finishing up his second term, so it's an open race. There was speculation that President Yayi wanted to amend the constitution to enable a third term, but his party did poorly in the parliamentary election in May , so that option was shut out. The most famous Beninois in the United States is surely Angelique Kidjo , and there was hope among some last year that she would run, but their Facebook page hasn't been updated in ten months so I don't think that's happening. Bummer. The recent drama among actual candidates circles arou...

Burkina Faso army orders coup leaders back to barracks; dueling focal points in battle of the sexes

- September 21, 2015

Source: AFP In my first post on last week's military coup in Burkina Faso, I predicted that "It is unlikely that the military will remain in power for long." However, I'll be the first to admit I had no idea the coup would end the way it seems to be ending. Quick background: President Compaore's 27-year rule ended on Halloween last year in response to street protests when he and his ruling party, the CDP, tried to remove the term-limits so Compaore could run for another term as president. An interim government planned for elections in October 2015, but a new electoral code banned the CDP and its allies from running. The CDP appealed to the ECOWAS Court, and that Court said the ban violated the former ruling party's human rights, but the Burkina Faso Constitutional Court ignored that ruling and enforced the electoral code, banning the CDP. Meanwhile, a commission of the interim government recommended disbanding Compaore's elite presidential gua...