The ruling junta in Mali submitted, Saturday, January 8, to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) a new proposal for a timetable to return power to civilians, on the eve of a heavy summit issues of this organization, said Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop.
The junta initially asked for up to five years, a period a priori unacceptable for ECOWAS. It holds an extraordinary summit in Accra on Sunday, with the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Mali.
The head of diplomacy and government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga traveled to Accra on Saturday to submit a new proposal to the incumbent ECOWAS president, Ghanaian head of state Nana Akufo-Addo, said reported state television.
The new duration of the transition not specified
The foreign minister reported that ECOWAS mediator Goodluck Jonathan, on mission in Mali during the week, had asked the junta to reconsider the proposal for a transition that might extend over five years from 1is January 2022.
“It is in this context that the president of the transition [le colonel Assimi Goïta], anxious to maintain dialogue and good cooperation with ECOWAS, sent us to his brother [le président ghanéen] with a new proposal to be submitted to ECOWAS ”, he said on national television. He did not specify the new duration of the transition proposed by the junta.
Mali, a poor and landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, was the scene of two military coups in August 2020 and May 2021. The political crisis has gone hand in hand with a serious security crisis since 2012 and the outbreak of insurgencies independence and jihadist in the north.
The ECOWAS had obtained from the authorities resulting from the putsch of August 2020 the commitment that they would return power to elected civilians following eighteen months. The authorities say today that they are unable to meet this commitment.
