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

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

This is the first time that any country has left Ecowas since it was established in 1975 to improve economic and political integration in West Africa.

The three departing countries were founding members so this is a major blow to Africa's most progressive trade group.

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

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

The Ecowas Commission in Abuja is tasked with working out these issues, and how the two blocs should work together in the future.

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

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

However, the three countries are poor and have open land, 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 decision of the three Sahel countries to leave but offered an interim period of six months.

In the period between January 29 and July 29, 2025, the three can be brought back to the block if they decide to go back to the community, a communique from Ecowas noted.

In the meantime, talks will continue led by the President of Senegal Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Faure Gnassingbé from Togo.

So far the military juntas have refused to stay 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".

The withdrawal would be a major blow to regional unity and efforts to promote economic and security cooperation.

At the opening of the summit, the head of the Ecowas commission, Omar Touray, said that their "exit" was "difficult", but he wanted to "praise the ongoing mediation efforts", reported the AFP news agency.

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

In a statement, the president of AES, the military governor of Mali Assimi Goïta, said that the right of Ecowas citizens "to enter, circulate, live, establish and leave the territory" of the new block would be kept up

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

The three states notified 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 strained 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 that they would restore civilian rule.

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

They accuse Ecowas of being too close to Western powers, and they increasingly rely on Russia to fight against armed jihadists who are fighting terrorism in the region.