Thousands of athletes, sports enthusiasts and government officials from across the world gathered at the Diamniadio Olympic Stadium near Dakar to witness the official opening of the 2026 Youth Olympic Games on Saturday 31 October in Senegal.
African and Senegalese culture was on display as scores of drummers and dancers entertained spectators and viewers in the spirit of the Games motto, “Africa welcomes, Dakar celebrates”.
It is the first Olympic event in Africa as the continent seeks a greater role in international sporting competitions, with nearly 3,000 athletes aged 14 to 17 showcasing their sporting skills and talent in 25 sports from 31 October to 13 November in three venues – Dakar, Diamniadio and the beach resort of Saly.
However, the Games opening ceremony by the Senegalese President Diomaye Faye was overshadowed by his controversial decision to welcome Guinea-Bissau’s junta leader Gen. Horta N’Tam to the occasion.
Guinea-Bissau is under ECOWAS suspension, with Gen. N’Tam and his junta colleagues effectively under sanctions, following the 26 November 2025 self-coup by former President Umaro Sissoco Embaló.
Last July, regional leaders in their wisdom made Senegal the chair of the Authority of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The country’s (rtd.) General Birame Diop was also selected as President of the ECOWAS Commission, while Senegal retained its role as the regional mediator in the Guinea-Bissau crisis.
President Faye was chosen to serve as rotational chair of the ECOWAS Authority for one year, with Gen. Diop as the Commission’s president for four years, while Senegal’s tenure as mediator was not specified.
Many commentators, including this writer, did warn about the dangers of such concentration of power and responsibility on a country struggling with its own domestic challenges. Four months on, the signs are not looking good.
Faye’s efforts as a mediator in Guinea-Bissau have so far yielded no positive results. If anything, Bissau-Guinean opposition parties believe he supports Embaló, who organised the November 2025 to avoid an electoral defeat.
Following the November 2025 coup, Faye dispatched an aircraft to evacuate Embaló from Bissau to Dakar. However, Embaló hurriedly left Senegal after Faye’s former ally-turned political foe, ex-Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, challenged Faye’s decision.
Under the ECOWAS 2001 Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, which prescribes “zero-tolerance for obtaining or retaining political power” through unconstitutional means, there are consequences for coup plotters and their countries.
Faye’s red carpet reception of Gen. N’Tam at the Dakar International Airport and Presidential Pavilion has not reflected compliance with, or respect for, the spirit and letter of the ECOWAS binding legal instrument.
According to official sources, the junta leader’s visit was to enable him to “participate in the Dakar Summit on Sports and Sustainable Development, to be followed by the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games at the Abdoulaye Wade Stadium.” So, the visit has nothing to do with Senegal’s mediation in Guinea-Bissau.
The convenient but untenable excuse could be that Senegal is pursuing its bilateral relations interest. But with Faye as the chair of the ECOWAS Authority and Gen. Diop as President of the ECOWAS Commission, if Gen. N’Tam’s invitation by Senegal to the opening of a sporting event when his country is under ECOWAS suspension is not a violation of the ECOWAS protocol, many would wonder what it is.
As a sovereign nation, Senegal is within its own right to choose any leader or country to associate with. But when such an association is in conflict with its position as chair of the highest decision-making body of ECOWAS, which has suspended such a country for unconstitutional change of government, Senegal’s commitment to ECOWAS and its ideals deserve serious interrogation.
From supporting Embaló to now embracing the military junta in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal is telling whoever cares to listen that Guinea-Bissau matters more to Dakar than ECOWAS.
Since the Gen. N’Tam-led junta, populated by Embaló’s former friends and allies, seized power, Faye has dispatched delegations to Bissau for talks, and the junta has stuck to its unilateral 12-month transition programme, ignoring ECOWAS’ demand for a “short” transition.
The regime held a sham constitutional referendum on 30 August, boycotted by opposition parties, and has postponed the end-of-transition general elections, which it had earlier scheduled for 6 December 2026.
Interestingly, the Bissau Military High Command has also barred Embaló from returning home, citing security reasons. His loyalists have been eased out of the armed forces, and his two-minister allies have been sacked from the government cabinet.
Instead of nudging the Bissau junta towards a return to constitutional order, Faye and his associates would appear to be encouraging the regime to undermine ECOWAS, thereby putting the regional bloc in an awkward position for any meaningful and neutral intervention in that country, or in any other Member State, for that matter.
In a politically restive region, notorious for military coups, and with three ECOWAS Member States – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – having withdrawn from ECOWAS after military coups, Faye and others supporting the Bissau junta are not only sending the wrong message to potential coup makers, but are also compounding an already bad situation for ECOWAS.
Gen. Diop is also from Senegal and is unlikely to antagonise his compatriot in Guinea-Bissau.
The Senegalese president and other ECOWAS leaders enabling or encouraging military coups or coup plotters should be reminded about the reason ECOWAS was set up in 1975 under the Treaty of Lagos.
Before the regional body was set up, several countries in the region were under military dictatorships. But by 2020, all 15 ECOWAS Member States were practising a democratic system of government, however imperfect, until Mali’s Col. Assimi Goita ignited a new wave of military incursions in August that year.
Since then, there has been no let-up, with coups and attempted coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Benin and Nigeria.
The rapprochement envisaged through the recent ministerial meeting in Dakar by ECOWAS and the Alliance for Sahel States, AES (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger), should not be at the expense of ECOWAS’ time-honoured principles.
Having failed to stop Guinea’s coup leader, Gen. Mamady Doumbouya, from succeeding himself through a controversial election, in violation of the ECOWAS protocol, the regional bloc should prioritise redeeming itself, and especially now that the Bissau junta appears to have fallen out with Embaló.
Also, ECOWAS can still demand the release of the results of the 23 November 2025 elections held before Embaló’s self-coup, and the swearing-in of the acclaimed presidential winner Fernando Dias da Costa.
Hobnobbing with a military ruler in the name of fostering bilateral relations is antithetical to ECOWAS’ raison d’être, with the attendant risk of facilitating regional disintegration and rendering ECOWAS irrelevant in regional and global equations.
ECOWAS leaders must undertake a reality check. Their actions and inaction, including poor governance, illegal changes to national constitutions, rigging of elections, human rights violations and non-compliance with ECOWAS legal texts, are the triggers and drivers of instability, insecurity and military coups in the region.
Paul Ejime is a Global Affairs Analyst & Consultant on Strategic Governance Communications.
