What’s the point of Ecowas and other regional blocs?

A regional bloc is a group of countries that team up to work together on common goals, like trade or security, to benefit all members. In Africa they include Ecowas, which stands for the Economic Community of West African States, the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) amongst others.

But are they always as effective as they set out to be? Recently, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso quit the West African bloc - Ecowas. The military-led countries had already been suspended from the bloc, which has been urging them to return to democratic rule.

From Liberia in 1990 to the Gambia in 2017, regional groups have deployed troops to address coups, civil wars, and disputed elections. While some interventions, like the restoration of President Kabbah in Sierra Leone, were successful, others such as the intervention in the Liberian civil war, faced criticism for human rights abuses.

BBC Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja spoke to BBC Africa’s Beverly Ochieng about the role regional blocs play in Africa and how their interventions impact citizens.