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ECOWAS summit: "States have no other solution than a gradual lifting of sanctions against Mali"

Audio 06:35

ECOWAS meeting in Accra, Ghana (Illustration image).

© AP - Misper Apawu

By: Anne Cantener Follow

5 mins

A decisive summit is currently being held in Accra, around a central question: should the sanctions be lifted or, on the contrary, should they be taken against the military regimes of West Africa?

The leaders of the region have been meeting since this morning in Ghana to talk about it, during the summit of the West African organization Cédéao.

Three countries are concerned: Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

All three led by the military after coups, and all three in no real rush to complete the political transition.

We are talking about it today with Pape Ibrahima Kane, in charge of relations between the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (Osiwa) and the bodies of the African Union.

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RFI: The only country to already be subject to sanctions is Mali and the junta has made efforts: in just two weeks, it adopted the electoral law that the Economic Community of East African States West (ECOWAS) had been demanding for a long time.

She set a date for the elections.

Can this be enough to convince West African leaders, in your opinion?

Pope Ibrahima Kane:

I think so.

West African leaders have every interest in Mali joining the community, because the sanctions that have been taken have been unpopular sanctions, unpopular not only at the level of the people of Mali, but also at the level of the region.

States like Senegal have really suffered from these sanctions.

Now that the military have taken calming measures, measures towards the end of the transition, I think that the States have no other solution than to go in the direction of a gradual lifting of sanctions against Mali and hope for a return of Mali to the community in a year.

There is still a

Absolutely.

But these things can be fixed by gradually lifting the sanctions.

We can get the Malian authorities to solve these problems that I could call technical.

The root of the problem is that Mali is now at a crossroads and ECOWAS cannot take responsibility for pushing this country further.

What he has been criticized for a lot…

Absolutely.

And on these issues, there are many other means of pressure on the military to induce President Goïta not to appear.

So, we are starting to lift the sanctions, we are starting a dialogue to then try to negotiate again.

In Conakry and Ouagadougou, the military are offering a three-year transition, which is more than ECOWAS wants.

But can we expect some kind of compromise during the day?

With Burkina, it is almost certain that the compromise is already on the way.

But it is with Guinea that I am afraid that ECOWAS will be more severe, because the Guinean soldiers have shown a certain inflexibility which is not likely to facilitate dialogue with ECOWAS.

I think that the Heads of State are not at all satisfied with the behavior of Guineans and that there is a possibility of tougher sanctions against Guinea.

But for Burkina Faso as for Mali, it is possible to arrive at a satisfactory result for both parties.

In any case, this summit was well prepared.

The President of Niger was visiting Ouagadougou in recent days.

At first glance, he was among those who defended a rather hard line at the last summit last month.

Mahamadou Issoufou has changed position, in your opinion?

Maybe not.

But I think it was the Burkinabè soldiers who were really reasonable.

Not only did they accept that there was a mediator, but in addition, the conversations that the mediator had with the leaders indicated that there was really a will on both sides to reach an agreement.

And in such conditions, the best thing is to move forward, to speed up the process rather than putting the military in the dock.

In Burkina today, the soldiers also have no choice.

They have seen the consequences of the sanctions in Mali.

They must make the effort, too, to go in the direction of what the community wants.

One can imagine that this serves as an example in both directions, both for the military in power who see that the sanctions are still very heavy against Mali, and for ECOWAS which also measures how unpopular these measures are. throughout the region.

And the case that seems the most vague is that of Guinea.

The junta has finally opened a political dialogue, but many Guinean parties do not believe in it.

And then the military banned the demonstrations, arrested several relatives of ousted President Alpha Condé.

Is discussion still possible with the new authorities in Guinea?

I wonder myself, because the military refused a mediator, they took unilateral measures, the dialogue is at its lowest with ECOWAS.

I don't see how these soldiers can get away with it today.

We have the impression that these Guinean soldiers are saying: we are in power and we will stay there.

However, this is not the case in the region.

It is the state of mind of the Guinean soldiers that I question today, because they do not seem to take the full measure of the problems that await them.

And ECOWAS cannot afford, in the current context, to open another front in a region that is already completely upside down.

So these soldiers will have to pay for the mistakes they have made since taking power.

And probably ECOWAS will be more severe.

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• Africa

• ECOWAS

• mali

• Burkina Faso

• Guinea