Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger split from Africa bloc

DAKAR, Senegal — Three nations in Africa’s Sahel region announced Sunday they were leaving the area’s most important political and economic bloc, deepening a rift between those countries’ military juntas and other states in West Africa.

Mali, Niger, and Burkina

Faso issued a joint statement accusing the Economic Community of West African States of kowtowing to foreign powers and said their withdrawal from the union was effective immediately.

Colonel Amadou Abdramane, spokesman for Niger’s junta, read from the statement in a televised address. The bloc, he said, had turned away from the ideals of its founding fathers and failed to support the three countries in their “existential fight against terrorism and insecurity.”

Later Sunday, the bloc said that it had not received formal notification from the three countries regarding their intent to withdraw. The bloc said that it had been working with all three nations for the restoration of constitutional order.