West Africa's regional bloc lifts coup sanctions on Niger in a new push for dialogue

West Africa's regional bloc known as ECOWAS has lifted travel, commercial and economic sanctions imposed on Niger that were aimed at reversing the coup staged in the country last year, a senior official announced Saturday.

The sanctions will be lifted with immediate effect, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray said after the bloc's meeting in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, that aimed to address existential threats facing the region as well as implore three junta-led nations that have quit the bloc to rescind their decision.

The lifting of the sanctions on Niger is "on purely humanitarian grounds" to ease the suffering caused as a result, Touray told reporters. "There are targeted (individual) sanctions as well as political sanctions that remain in force," he added.

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