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Togo’s capital, Lome, hosted Tuesday, July the 31st, the 53rd summit of the Economic Community of West African States, also known as ECOWAS. The Togolese crisis has been at the heart of the regional meeting. The country is torn between the opposition that calls for the departure of President Faure Gnassingbé, in office since 2005, and the presidential camp that backs the Togolese head of state for the 2020 election.
The West African organization’s head of states have been trying for months to make the two parties reach a common ground. The main issue of disagreement is related to the fact that Gnassingbé’ supporters do not want to approve a law limiting presidential terms to two. The procedure would prevent the current Togolese president from running for the 2020 election.
Waiting for an answer
Once again, Morocco’s bid to join ECOWAS, submitted in March 2017, has not been discussed at the 53rd summit. This can be easily noticed when reading the communiqué issued by the organization after the end of the summit.
This year, the West African organization hosted two extraordinary summits before the one that took place on July the 31st. The first was held on the 27th of January in Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the African Union Heads of State Conference, while the second one took place in Lome on April the 14th without considering Rabat’s request.
Meanwhile in Morocco, little has been done before the ECOWAS July 31st summit. Obviously, Morocco is starting to understand that accessing the ECOWAS is a long-term objective.
It took Tunisia more than two years to finally be accepted as a member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), on 18th of July 2018. The decision was expected in October 2017.
During ECOWAS’ recent summit, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was elected head of the organization, replacing Ivory Coast’s Jean-Claude Kassi Brou. The next conference of head of state is scheduled for December in Abuja.
