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This follows five months of sanctions on the coup-hit country, imposed by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS on Niger following a coup on July 26 which saw the military oust elected leader Mohamed Bazoum.
Benin has lifted its suspension of imported goods transiting to Niger through the port of Cotonou. Importantly, this follows five months of sanctions on the coup-hit country, imposed by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS on Niger following a coup on July 26 which saw the military oust elected leader Mohamed Bazoum.
The measures have led to the closure of the border with Benin, which has seen a fall in revenues after the transport of goods to Niger, a landlocked country via its ports was halted. Now that the sanctions on Niger are lifted, both Benin and Niger are hopeful of their economies picking up because of the increased traffic and trade. Commercial interfaces between Niger and the rest of the world, particularly from its neighbouring countries, pass through Benin’s ports.
ECOWAS maintained that the measure was taken given the substantial improvement in the operational conditions for handling goods at the port of Cotonou, in particular the reduction in the rate of congestion. The move comes almost a week after Benin President Patrice Talon called for relations to be swiftly re-established between his country and neighboring Niger.
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A giant oil pipeline that will allow Niger — one of the world’s poorest countries — to sell its crude on the international market for the first time, via the Benin port of Seme is under construction. The Niger–Benin Oil Pipeline, also known as Niger–Benin Export Pipeline (NBEP), is a 1,950-kilometer-long crude oil pipeline connecting oilfields near the desert oasis of Agadem in Niger to the Atlantic Ocean. It ends in the Gulf of Guinea near Benin’s largest city Cotonou.
