West Africa's regional bloc has tasked Senegalese President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, to engage with the three military-led member states to reunite the region.
ECOWAS reached the decision at its summit in Abuja, where the bloc named Mr Faye as its envoy to meet with Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which formed their separate union after their respective coups severed relations with their neighbours.
Speaking at the summit, President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray, said the Senegalese president, has all the qualifications required to serve as a facilitator.
It could be recalled that the three countries affected by the coup had already declared at their summit that they have irrevocably turned their backs on ECOWAS.
However, a Middle East and Africa analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, Karim Manuel, sees Faye's mission as important in the context of an unprecedented regional crisis, which he argued is unlikely to bear fruits.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was asked to continue as the bloc's president as his one-year term was coming to an end, called for new and stronger partnerships to develop the region in the face of its enormous challenges.