This week the ECOWAS group faced more difficulties as military chiefs of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso boycuted a summit of West African presidents.
Forming a "Confederation of Sahel States" in what they claimed was a challenge to France's intervention in the area, the three nations Concerned about regional instability, ECOWAS has requested Senegal's President Bassirou Diomaye Faye to try to persuade the separatist states back to the group.