Leaders of the West African regional grouping, Ecowas, have approved the withdrawal of three countries ruled by the military from the bloc, but have offered a six-month grace period for them to reconsider.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger plan to withdraw from Ecowas in January after refusing the bloc’s demand to restore democratic rule.

The three departing countries were founding members when Ecowas was established in 1975 to improve economic and political integration in West Africa, so this is a huge blow to what was Africa’s most developed trade grouping.

Citizens of all Ecowas countries currently have the right to live and work in all member states, while goods can circulate freely.

Ecowas has not yet said whether it will impose restrictions on people and goods coming from the three departing states, who have formed a new grouping, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES, from its French acronym).

The Ecowas Commission in Abuja has been mandated to work out such issues, and how the two blocs should work together in future.

Over the weekend, the AES announced visa-free travel and residency rights for Ecowas citizens.

Their leaders said this decision had been taken in the spirit of friendship, and to strengthen centuries-old ties among African people.

However, the three countries are poor and landlocked, so most migrants move from them to the richer, coastal countries in West Africa.

Ecowas leaders meeting in Nigeria on Sunday said they respected the three Sahel countries’ decision to leave but offered a transitional period of six months.

In the period between 29 January and 29 July 2025, the trio can be readmitted to the bloc should they decide to rejoin the community, a communique from Ecowas noted.

In the meantime negotiations led by Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Togo’s Faure Gnassingbé will continue.

So far the military juntas have refused to remain in the bloc despite efforts to persuade them.

After a ministerial-level meeting on Friday in Niger’s capital, Niamey, the three states said in a joint statement that their decision was “irreversible”.

Their withdrawal would be a major blow to regional unity and efforts to boost economic and security cooperation.

At the opening of the summit, Ecowas commission head Omar Touray said their “impending exit” was “disheartening”, but he wanted to “commend the ongoing mediation efforts”, AFP news agency reported.

With their planned departure, the bloc will lose 76 million of its 446 million people and more than half its total geographical land area.

In a statement, AES chairman, Mali’s military ruler Assimi Goïta, said the right of Ecowas citizens to “enter, circulate, reside, establish and leave the territory” of the new bloc would be maintained.

His statement was seen as a signal to Ecowas leaders that Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger wanted to maintain good relations, despite quitting the bloc.

The three states gave notice to Ecowas in January 2023 that they would withdraw in a year, meeting the timeline set by the bloc for states that decide to leave.

Relations between the bloc and the three countries have been tense after military coups took place in Niger in July, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Mali in 2020.

Ecowas condemned the coups, and suspended their membership, hoping they will restore civilian rule.

But the coup leaders dug in their heels, and have pivoted towards Russia.

They accuse Ecowas of being too close to Western powers, and are increasingly relying on Russia to fight armed jihadists who are waging an insurgency in the region.

Correction 16 December: This article originally described the trio’s plans as the first split in Ecowas. In fact Mauritania withdrew in 2000 so we have removed this line from the story.