ABUJA: Mali’s West African neighbours on Friday told the country’s junta to immediately transfer power to a civilian-led transitional government and hold elections within a year.
In exchange, the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) committed to gradually lifting sanctions as Mali’s coup leaders complied with its demands, the regional bloc’s chairman said.
ECOWAS suspended Mali from its institutions, shut borders and halted financial flows with the country following last week’s ousting of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
On Friday the group reinforced its a hard line because of concerns about prolonged instability in the country and its potential to undermine the fight against Islamist militants there and in the wider Sahel region.
Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, who currently chairs ECOWAS, said Mali’s transitional president and prime minister must be civilians, and would be banned from running in the next legislative and presidential elections.
“No military structure should be above the transitional president,” Issoufou added.
The soldiers behind the coup are anxious to get the sanctions lifted and, as a gesture of goodwill ahead of the summit, released Keita on Thursday and allowed him to return home.
They also cut their proposed duration of a transition to democracy to two years from three.
Two diplomats who attended the conference said there was room for the transition to be extended for a couple of months beyond the ECOWAS deadline.
The region’s leaders are scheduled to meet again on Sept. 7 in Niger’s capital Niamey, where they will take stock of the situation in Mali and take other measures, if necessary, Issoufou said.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
Comments
0 comment