ECOWAS

British

/ ɛˈkəʊəs /

acronym

Economic Community of West African States; an economic association established in 1975 whose members are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Mauritania joined but withdrew in 2002

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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ECOWAS

That only ended in April 2020 when the west African regional bloc, ECOWAS, recognised Embalo as the winner.

From Barron's ● Nov. 28, 2025

ECOWAS, led by President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria, backed down.

From New York Times ● Jan. 28, 2024

The 15-nation regional bloc, ECOWAS, has unsuccessfully tried to restore political stability across the entire West and Central Africa which has recorded eight military takeovers since 2020, including in Niger and Gabon.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 10, 2023

Hassoumi Massoudou, the foreign minister of Niger's ousted government, and Omar Touray, the head of the commission of West Africa's main regional bloc ECOWAS, will attend the talks.

From Reuters ● Aug. 30, 2023

Talks this weekend between Niger’s new military regime and a delegation from the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, have reportedly yielded little progress.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 20, 2023

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023