The deadline for the exit of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso from the Economic Community of West African States is set to expire today, creating significant uncertainty within the region.

This is as the ECOWAS Commission President, Omar Touray will brief the media today on the exit of the three Sahel States.

These three countries were suspended by ECOWAS in January 2024 following military coups that ousted their elected governments.

The Head of Communication at the ECOWAS Commission, Joel Ahofodji, had confirmed that letters had been sent requesting meetings with the junta-led governments of the three countries.

“ECOWAS has sent letters requesting meetings. We are awaiting official responses from the countries,” Ahofodji said. When asked if the nations had reached out to reconsider their exit, he responded, “No.”

This diplomatic effort comes as ECOWAS prepares to approve the withdrawal of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, following the expiration of the one-year notice period required by Article 91 of the Revised ECOWAS Treaty.

The bloc had set a six-month transitional period, which ends on July 29, 2025, to finalise the withdrawal protocols and explore potential reconciliation.

At the conclusion of its 66th Ordinary Session in December 2024, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Touray, expressed the bloc’s continued willingness to engage with the three countries during the transition.

He also confirmed that the mediation mandates of Senegalese President Bassirou Faye and Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé had been extended to continue efforts to communicate with the departing nations.

The governments of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have accused ECOWAS of deviating from its founding principles and succumbing to external pressures, particularly regarding sanctions imposed after the military takeovers.

In response, the three countries formed the Alliance of Sahel States, a new bloc focused on defence and mutual support, while distancing themselves from traditional Western allies such as France and fostering closer ties with Russia.

President Bola Tinubu, who chairs the ECOWAS Authority, reiterated the bloc’s commitment to pursuing diplomatic solutions while ensuring the protection of citizens.

ECOWAS, established in 1975 to promote economic integration across West Africa, has faced increasing challenges in recent years with a growing number of military takeovers in the region. These include coups in Mali in 2020 and 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Niger in 2023.

On July 26, 2023, a coup in Niger saw the presidential guard detain President Mohamed Bazoum, and General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of the presidential guard, declared himself the new leader.

In Burkina Faso, a coup on September 30, 2022, led to the removal of Interim President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had himself come to power in a coup just eight months earlier.

In Mali, a mutiny by the military on August 18, 2020, resulted in the ousting of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.

Credit: PUNCH

US President Donald Trump has said he will impose 25% tariffs and sanctions on Colombia after its president barred two US military planes carrying deported migrants from landing in the country.

Trump said the tariffs “on all goods” coming into the US from Colombia would be put in place “immediately”, and in one week the 25% tariffs would be raised to 50%.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro responded by saying he would impose retaliatory tariffs of 25% on the US.

Petro earlier on Sunday said he had denied entry to US military deportation flights. He said he would “receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals” and migrants must be returned “with dignity and respect”.

US officials told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that two military planes from San Diego were due to land in Colombia on Sunday with migrant deportees, but those plans were scrapped due to complications.

In response, Trump announced “urgent and decisive retaliatory measures” in a post on TruthSocial. He said the US will impose a travel ban and “immediate visa revocations” on Colombian government officials, as well as its allies and supporters.

Trump also said there would be visa sanctions on supporters of the Colombian government, and enhanced Customs and Border Protection inspections “of all Colombian nationals and cargo on national security grounds”.

“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump added, saying his administration would not allow the Colombian government “to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the criminals they forced into the United States”.

Petro responded on X by announcing his own tariffs and celebrating Colombia’s heritage and resilience.

“Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world,” he said.

He also offered his presidential plane to facilitate the “decent return” of deportees from the US who had been set to arrive in the country.

Also on Sunday, Petro said more than 15,666 Americans were in Colombia illegally – a figure the BBC has not been able to independently verify.

Petro said that unlike the Trump administration, he would “never” be seen carrying out a raid to return illegal US migrants.

The US imports about 20% of its coffee – worth nearly $2bn (£1.6bn) – from Colombia, as well as other goods like bananas, crude oil, avocados and flowers.

Tariffs will make importing these goods more expensive which, if passed onto the consumer, could mean higher coffee prices rising.

Importers could shift to other sources to avoid this, which would in turn hit Colombian producers by reducing a key market.

The sanctions and travel bans on the Colombian government and its supporters, and the breakdown in diplomatic relations that signals, are also significant.

This is now not just a war of trade, but a war of words.

It is no secret that Petro does not like Trump – he has heavily criticised his policies on migration and the environment in the past. That just ratcheted up.

Petro said Trump would “wipe out the human species because of greed” and accused Trump of considering Colombians an “inferior race.” He went on to say that he is “stubborn” and that while Trump can try to “carry out a coup” with “economic strength and arrogance” he will, in short, fight back.

“From today on, Colombia is open to the entire world, with open arms,” he said.

While Trump is unlikely to take threats from Colombia, this is something that should worry a US president who wants to tackle migration.

Trump’s own pick for deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, has argued that “working with other countries to stop such migratory flows” must be a “global imperative of US foreign policy”.

Tens of thousands of migrants from around the world head north towards the US after landing in South America each year, travelling up through Colombia, usually facilitated by criminal gangs.

The latest developments will no doubt make it harder for Trump’s administration to work with Colombia to stop this.

The feud between the two nations comes as Trump’s administration has vowed to carry out “mass deportations”. The president signed multiple executive orders related to immigration on his first day in office.

Some of Trump’s executive orders were signed with the aim of expanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) ability to arrest and detain unlawful migrants on US soil.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that 538 arrests were conducted on Thursday alone.

For comparison, ICE detained more than 149,700 people in the 2024 fiscal year under the Biden administration, which equals an average of 409 a day.

Trump declared a national emergency at the Mexico border, ordered officials to deny the right to citizenship to the children of migrants in the US illegally or on temporary visas and re-implemented his “Remain in Mexico” policy from his first term.

On Saturday, US Vice President JD Vance told CBS’s Face the Nation that he supports “doing law enforcement against violent criminals”.

“Just because we were founded by immigrants doesn’t mean that 240 years later that we have to have the dumbest immigration policy in the world,” he told CBS’s Margaret Brennan.

Tom Homan, Trump’s “border tsar” told ABC News on Sunday that the military is currently at the US-Mexico border helping with departure flights on military planes and building infrastructure to secure the border.

“It’s sending a strong signal to the world: Our border is closed,” he said.

Trump campaigned on securing the southern border and reducing the number of undocumented immigrants who enter the US.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants have been deported from the United States following a directive from President Donald Trump to crack down on illegal immigration.

Trump had on his first day in office signed a series of executive orders aimed at tackling illegal immigration.

He also declared the situation at the United States and Mexico border as a national emergency, just as he designated criminal cartels as terrorist organisations. The US president stopped the practice of granting automatic citizenship to children born in the US to undocumented immigrants.

Trump also signed an order suspending the US refugee resettlement programme for four months.

An enforcement operation began this week.

According to White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, 538 illegal immigrants were arrested in the first round of operations.

She wrote in a post on her X handle on Thursday, “The Trump administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals, including a suspected terrorist, four members of the Tren de Aragua gang, and several individuals convicted of sex crimes against minors.”

However, according to the CBS News on Friday, two deportation flights had arrived overnight in Guatemala.

A Guatemalan migration official confirmed the arrivals, noting that one flight from El Paso carried 80 people, another flight from Tucson brought in 80 more, and a third flight from El Paso carried around 105 individuals.

Leavitt confirmed that the operation was far-reaching, stating, “The Trump Administration has also deported hundreds of illegal immigrant criminals via military aircraft. The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway.”

This marked the beginning of an intensified effort to curb illegal immigration as part of Trump’s broader immigration policies.