Nigeria has criticised the three countries that have left a West African regional grouping, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), saying that these countries have let their people down.
Over the weekend, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, all countries which have recently experienced coups, left the regional bloc. The three countries had already been suspended because of the military takeovers.
The three said that ECOWAS was influenced by foreign governments and had failed to help temper the threat of Jihadist violence. Last year the three countries formed their own tripartite military pact, called the Alliance for Sahel States.
In a statement, the Nigerian foreign ministry said: ‘Unelected leaders engage in a public posturing to deny their people the sovereign right to make fundamental choices over their freedom of movement, freedom to trade and freedom to choose their own leaders.’