Western heads of stateAfrican decided on Sunday at Ghana to suspend the Mali of their common sub-regional organization after a double military coup, which they condemned while avoiding other sanctions.
The presidents of the fifteen member countries of the Economic Community of africa of the West (ECOWAS) or their representatives “Strongly condemn the recent coup” and, “After long discussions […] decide to suspend Mali from ECOWAS institutions ”, says the final communiqué of this extraordinary summit in Accra.
“Immediate” release
They claim the nomination “Immediate” of a “New” Prime Minister from civil society. They “Require” the Liberation “Immediate” former president and transitional prime minister, arrested Monday and removed from power before Colonel Assimi Goïta was declared president on Friday. The two former leaders have returned home, but are under house arrest, says ECOWAS.
It reaffirms the need for the transition opened after the first coup in August 2020 and supposed to bring civilians back to power be limited to 18 months, and for general elections to be held as planned in February 2022.
However, it remains silent on the designation of Colonel Goïta as president. It does not call for the reinstatement of the former president and prime minister in their functions.
After the August 2020 putsch, she demanded and obtained the appointment of a civilian president and a transitional prime minister.
Second putsch in nine months
It “Reiterates […] that the head of the transition, the vice-president and the Prime Minister of the transition must under no circumstances be a candidate for the future presidential election ”, she said, not without ambiguity. Assimi Goïta was vice-president until Friday.
Assimi Goïta went to Accra on Saturday where the ECOWAS said to invite him for « consultations » but AFP journalists did not see him in the summit room on Sunday.
ECOWAS had to decide the thorny question of their response to the second military putsch in nine months at the head of this crucial country for the stability of the Sahel in the face of jihadist spread.
The Constitutional Court declared on Friday Colonel Assimi Goïta transitional president, completing the coup launched on May 24 against those who were between him and the leadership of this country caught in a turmoil with multiple security, economic and political dimensions, since the outbreak of independence and jihadist rebellions in 2012 in the north.
“Deep Concerns”
Since then, violence has spread to the center of the country and to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. An attack blamed on jihadists by a security official in the south near the Ivorian and Guinean borders killed five people on Sunday and reinforced the fear of contamination of relatively untouched areas.
Like Mali’s other partners, ECOWAS expressed its “Deep concerns” in the face of recent political upheavals in such a context.
With the appointment of Colonel Goïta, the Malian Constitutional Court formalized a fait accompli that these partners had tried to oppose after the coup of August 2020.
Assimi Goïta and a group of colonels then overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta but, under international pressure, accepted the appointment of a civilian president and prime minister.
The junta, however, had carved out a tailor-made vice-presidency for Assimi Goïta, invested with essential security responsibilities.
Threat of French withdrawal
On Monday, the former special forces battalion commander arrested President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, civil guarantors of the transition, who then resigned, according to the official version.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned, in an interview with the Journal du dimanche, that Paris “Would not remain alongside a country where there is no longer democratic legitimacy or transition”.
After the 2020 coup, ECOWAS suspended Mali from all its decision-making bodies, closed the borders of its member states and stopped financial and commercial exchanges with the country, with the exception of basic necessities.
She had lifted the sanctions when the junta appeared to bow to her demands. An ECOWAS mission dispatched during the week to Mali had raised the possibility of new sanctions. France and the United States, militarily engaged in the Sahel, brandished the threat.
Doubt prevailed, however, as to the firmness of ECOWAS. The sanctions of August 2020 had been badly felt by a population suffering in a bloodless country.
In addition, different voices underlined the precedent created according to them by the diplomatic leniency shown towards Chad, another Sahelian country where a Transitional Military Council (CMT) of 15 generals took power on April 20 after the death of Idriss Déby Itno, headed by one of the former president’s sons.
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