West Africa was in the news during the months of March and April as coups pushed the region to the brink of chaos. But this time the region pushed back.

Mali's Captain Amadou Haya Sanog led a section of disgruntled soldiers to seize power in his country. Then, it was Guinea-Bissau's turn. Bissau-Guinean military men engineered a revolt that toppled that country's civilian government.

Both coups were similar in the way they occurred just three weeks before each country's elections and it looked as though democracy had been strangled at the 11th hour.

But the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the regional bloc, intervened, condemning the two incidents, imposing sanctions and ordering the rule of law to prevail.

Mali quickly accepted the terms and allowed for a transitional government to be formed before elections within a year. This is despite various further incidents of violence in the country.

Weeks later, Guinea-Bissau reluctantly followed suit. Former Prime Minister and front-runner in the runoff Carlos Gomes Junior and interim President Raimundo Pereira were released and allowed to seek safety in Cote d'Ivoire.

The release followed an extraordinary summit by ECOWAS, in which they announced the deployment of a military force to Guinea-Bissau and gave the junta three days to toe the line.

Ecowas proactive

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, the current Chair of ECOWAS, told reporters the organization would be firm in responding to the instability "to prevent our sub-region from giving into terrorism and transnational criminality."

A communiqué released after the talks attended by 15 heads of member states and governments in Abidjan on April 26, condemned the coup and "the disruption of the presidential electoral process, as well as the detention of the Prime Minister and the Interim President by the Junta."

Guinea-Bissau was suspended from the bloc until it shows the will to end the crisis.

"The authority reaffirms the fundamental principle of 'zero tolerance' for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means, as well as the role of the military in a democracy as enshrined in the supplementary Protocol on Democracy and good governance," they said in their 33-point resolution.

However, Bissau-Guinean coup plotters who had earlier accepted the conditions of ECOWAS later changed tack: They wanted the National Transitional Council they had created to be replaced after two years, not one. ECOWAS was not amused, and member states quickly convened another extraordinary summit in Dakar, Senegal on May 3.

"The summit hereby decides to maintain the sanctions imposed until such a time that all the protagonists accept the modalities for a return to constitutional order," they agreed after the summit.

In another dispatch, ECOWAS said it remained "seized with the situation in Guinea-Bissau" and maintained its previous decision of one year in which Guinea-Bissau is supposed to get back on track through review of laws related to elections as well as the Constitution in what the community said would achieve "greater efficiency."

ECOWAS Standby Force would also be sent to Guinea-Bissau to "assist in securing the transitional process, and undertake preparatory work for the immediate implementation of the roadmap for the Defence and Security Sector Reform Program (DSSRP)."

The sanctions included suspending Guinea-Bissau from ECOWAS, banning the military leadership from traveling, conducting business, receiving financial assistance or representing Guinea-Bissau in regional matters. Further, ECOWAS warned it might seek the International Criminal Court's hand to prosecute military leaders.