The West African regional grouping ECOWAS on Sunday hardened its stance against military-ruled Mali and Guinea, imposing new individual sanctions and calling on both countries to honor timetables for a return to democracy.<\/P>
The Economic Community of West African States “has decided to sanction all those implicated in the delay” in organizing elections set for February 27 in Mali, ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou told AFP after a summit of the 15-nation group in the Ghanaian capital Accra.<\/P>
He said Mali had “officially written” to Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, who holds the rotating presidency of ECOWAS, to inform him that the Sahel country could not hold elections as planned.<\/P>
“All the transition authorities are concerned by the sanctions which will take immediate effect,” Brou said, adding that they included travel bans and assets freezes.<\/P>
In a final declaration following Sunday’s summit, ECOWAS said it “highly deplores the lack of progress” towards staging elections in Mali.<\/P>
As for Guinea, where soldiers seized power on September 5, ECOWAS decided to uphold the country’s suspension from the bloc as well as sanctions against individual junta members and their families.<\/P>
It also reiterated its demand for the “unconditional release” of president Alpha Conde, 83, who has been under house arrest since his ouster.<\/P>
In the final declaration, it praised the adoption of a “transition charter,” the appointment of a civilian prime minister and the formation of a transitional government.<\/P>
But it called on the authorities to “urgently submit a detailed timetable… towards the holding of elections” in the country of 13 million people.<\/P>
Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who overthrew Conde after months of discontent against his government, had promised to restore civilian rule after a transition period of unspecified length.<\/P>
At a September summit, ECOWAS demanded that Guinea hold elections within six months.<\/P>
The regional leaders also demanded that the Mali junta adhere “strictly” to that country’s transition timetable.<\/P>
ECOWAS rescinded economic sanctions against Mali and its suspension from the organization when the junta headed by Colonel Assimi Goita pledged a transition of no more than 18 months.<\/P>
But Goita went on to mount a new coup in May, deposing transitional president Bah Ndaw and his prime minister, Moctar Ouane.<\/P>
ECOWAS suspended Mali once again, but did not apply new sanctions.<\/P>
Swathes of Mali, a vast nation of 19 million people, lie outside of government control because of a jihadist insurgency that emerged in the north in 2012, before spreading to the center of the country as well as neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.<\/P>
Brou noted that the deployment of contractors from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner in Mali was “one of the concerns of the heads of state.”<\/P>
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Source: Voice of America<\/P>
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