Is Mali back in Ecowas’s good graces?
APA- Bamako Ecowas’s chief mediator for Mali has expressed satisfaction with Bamako over its drive towards a swift return to constitutional order. West African leaders will discuss the political situation in Guinea, Burkina Faso and Mali, three countries that have recently experienced coups and are under military rule. In the wake of this, the regional body…
APA – Bamako (Mali) Ecowas’s chief mediator for Mali has expressed satisfaction with Bamako over its drive towards a swift return to constitutional order.
Goodluck Jonathan shuttled to the Malian capital on Tuesday November 29 for a short visit during which he was to assess the conduct and integrity of the transition and meet with junta leaders.
The chief mediator came away “rather pleased with what is happening”, given that the transition programme has been going well according to plan.
Jonathan’s visit comes just days before the ordinary summit of Ecowas’s Assembly of Heads of State and Government scheduled for December 4 in Abuja, Nigeria.
West African leaders will discuss the political situation in Guinea, Burkina Faso and Mali, three countries that have recently experienced coups and are under military rule.
Like Burkina and Guinea, the Malian junta has accepted a 24-month transition from March 2022 instead of the five years originally planned.
In the wake of this, the regional body lifted economic and financial sanctions imposed on Mali since January 9 at its July 3 summit.
However, the individual sanctions as well as the exclusion of Bamako from the decision-making bodies of Ecowas are still in force.
This to the junta is a sword of Damocles that the Malian authorities would like to get rid of, but the case of the 46 Ivorian soldiers being held in the country has not helped in easing the remaining sanctions.
The continued detention of the soldiers arrested since July by the junta who accuses them of being mercenaries is of concern to the West African regional grouping.
The bloc which has been on the side of Abidjan, which continues to claim their innocence and has not stopped demanding their unconditional release, sent a “high-level mission to Bamako, following its extraordinary summit on September 22 on the sidelines of the 77th UN General Assembly in New York.
But nothing has been leaked about the details of the audience granted on September 29 by Colonel Assimi Goita to Gambian president Adama Barrow, his Ghanan counterpart Nana Akufo Addo and Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey, representing Faure Gnassingbé, who was unable to attend.
At the same time, Cote d’Ivoire announced the withdrawal of all its troops from the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (Minusma) by August 2023.
