The Heads of State and Governments of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have urged the military junta in Mali to hand over to a civilian administration to steer the transitional process and restore constitutional rule in Mali.
The Chairman of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Governments, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, assured the military junta that immediately they hand over to the civilian administration to steer the process, ECOWAS would lift the sanctions it imposed on Mali.
The ECOWAS leaders announced some sanctions after the military coup in Mali, which included closure of their borders with Mali, suspension of all financial flows between its 14 other member states and Mali and also suspended Mali from its internal decision-making bodies.
President Akufo-AddoAddress told journalists after a one-day extra-ordinary ECOWAS Summit in Peduase in the Eastern Region of Ghana on Tuesday on the political situation in Mali, that “the situation in Mali calls for a quick resolution”.
He said that it was important, more than anything else, that Mali was managed by a civilian administration that could begin the process of normalising things.
President Akufo-Addo noted that though an agreement had not been reached, the military leadership agreed with the decisions taken at the meeting and that they needed to go back to consult with those, who were responsible for decisions to get them buy into it.
“The view point of ECOWAS is that matters that have been put out should be dealt with in terms of days and not weeks so that we begin the process of normalising the situation in Mali,” local media reports quoted President Akufo-Addo as saying.
He disclosed that Nigeria’s former leader, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, would return to Mali next week to continue with talks with the military junta.
“The situation in Mali calls for a quick resolution, we have to have a government in place that can begin the process of normalising things, and more than anything else organising the resistance to the Tuareg menace,” he said.
He expressed the hope that by the time the mediator returned to Mali, things would have been sorted out so that the sanctions could be lifted.
The meeting was attended by Presidents Alpha Conde of Guinea, Faure Gnassingbe of Togo, Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, Macky Sall of Senegal, Roch Marc Christian Kabore of Burkina Faso, Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo of Nigeria. The Malian military junta and other stakeholders were in attendance.
GIK/APA