In a renewed push for respect for democracy in coup-hit West Africa, leaders from across the region kicked off a crucial meeting in Nigeria on Sunday and acknowledged for the first time that their efforts to stem the tide of coups have so far met with little success.
The 15-nation regional bloc, ECOWAS, has unsuccessfully tried to restore political stability across West and Central Africa which has recorded eight military takeovers since 2020, including in Niger and Gabon. In the past month, the governments of Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau have also described political crises as attempted coups.
