Abuja (AFP) - West African regional bloc ECOWAS on Sunday threatened “targeted sanctions” on anyone obstructing Guinea-Bissau’s return to civilian rule following last month’s coup.

The announcement came as presidents from across the region met in Nigeria for a bi-annual meeting whose agenda was dominated by two recent coup attempts: a successful military takeover in Guinea-Bissau and a failed putsch in Benin.

“The authorities shall impose targeted sanctions on individuals or groups of persons that obstruct the transition process,” ECOWAS commission president Omar Alieu Touray told reporters at the end of summit, held in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Touray also said that the ECOWAS peacekeeping force deployed in Guinea-Bissau, a small, coup-prone west African country, since 2022, was “authorised… to provide protection to all political leaders and national institutions”.

The twin disruptions of civilian rule – last month in Guinea-Bissau and a week ago in Benin – have rattled the Economic Community of West African States, which condemned both at Sunday’s summit.

The failed putsch in Benin saw Nigeria deploy fighter jets and troops, alongside soldiers from Ivory Coast, to shore up the civilian government. ECOWAS has said more soldiers are on their way from Ghana and Sierra Leone.

ECOWAS was previously hit with a string of coups between 2020 and 2023 in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Niger – all of whom are still under junta control.

- Sahel security on agenda -

Sunday’s summit, held in a conference hall on the bucolic and highly secured campus surrounding the presidential villa at Aso Rock, was organised prior to the two recent coup attempts.

But both were high on the agenda, as were the December 28 elections in Guinea.

Junta leader Mamady Doumbouya ran for office there despite an earlier promise not to, and exiled opposition leader and former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo has been excluded from the polls.

Touray nevertheless said ECOWAS hailed Guinea’s polls as “significant progress” in the “transition process”.

When pressed on whether Guinea’s vote will be credible, Touray told reporters: “We hope that the elections would be credible, transparent and fair.”

Also under discussion was security in the Sahel region, where jihadist groups are waging insurgencies in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Under junta rule the three countries left ECOWAS and formed their own group, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

Last week, Touray called for negotiations with the AES over shared security concerns as the conflict continues to spread south.

“No border can insulate us from violence,” Sierra Leone President Julius Bio, who currently holds ECOWAS’s rotating chairmanship, said during Sunday’s summit.

Heads of state from Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, suspended after their military takeovers, were not present at the summit.

Nigerian president Bola Tinubu was not in attendance, and was instead represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima.

In addition to military takeovers, democratic backsliding has also dogged civilian governments in west Africa.

In October, Ivory Coast elected President Alassane Ouattara to a fourth term in an election that saw his rivals barred.

Both Bio and Tinubu’s 2023 elections sparked complaints of irregularities.