West African regional bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) removed sanctions on Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger on Saturday.

The ECOWAS Commission lifted travel, commercial, and economic sanctions imposed on all three countries that were aimed at reversing military coups staged in the countries in 2023, 2022, and 2021, a senior official announced Saturday.

The sanctions will be lifted with immediate effect, ECOWAS Commission President Omar Alieu Touray said after a meeting of the bloc in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

Niger's president Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in a military coup last July, prompting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to suspend trade and impose tough sanctions.

But the bloc's warning of military intervention has fizzled out with little sign that Bazoum – still imprisoned in the presidential palace in Niamey – is close to being restored.

Touray called for Bazoum's "immediate release" at the summit in Nigeria's capital.

He said the measures to be lifted included the freezing of Niger's assets in ECOWAS central banks and the suspension of financial transactions between ECOWAS states and Niger.

But Touray told AFP "individual sanctions as well as political sanctions remain in place in Niger... (and) in other countries political sanctions remain."

Nigeria's President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had urged worried West African leaders to rethink their strategy on the region's coup-hit states at the start of the summit.