Mali: what weakened the junta at the Accra summit with ECOWAS
Colonel Assimi Goïta, president of the National Council for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) in Mali, during the ECOWAS summit in Accra, September 15, 2020. Nipah Dennis / AFP
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5 mins
This Tuesday, September 15, the military junta participated in its first ECOWAS summit in Accra, an extraordinary mini-summit on the Malian crisis.
The number one of the junta, Colonel Amissi Goïta had an appointment with the presidents of the organization, on the last day of the ultimatum they had fixed for him.
He was to convince them to lift the economic sanctions that have weighed on Mali since the coup d'état of August 18.
And ask the regional organization to support the Malian political transition.
A plan that provides, among other things, for an 18-month transition, or six months more than what ECOWAS recommends.
But the regional organization is staying the course, and the sanctions, for the moment, and still requires civilian leadership in the transition.
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With our special
correspondent in Accra,
Jean-Luc Aplogan
and our correspondent in Bamako,
Serge Daniel
When his vehicle comes to a stop in front of the steps of Peduassi Lodge, the summit location, we see that there is no Malian flag screwed onto the hood of his car.
The leader of the putschists wears a fatigues, the uniform of the Malian special forces that he led.
On the steps which lead him to the Ghanaian president, he is somewhat hesitant.
The host of the summit says to him: “
Welcome, is everything going well?
The photographers strafe it.
All the faces behind him are juvenile.
The comments heard speak of it.
The program had reserved 40 minutes for him to present the transition charter.
Colonel Goïta preferred a very formal speech to a presentation, reports a confidence.
There were pieces on the justification for the coup and the support of the Malian people for the junta.
No precise answer to the ultimatum of the ECOWAS.
And when the mini-summit asks him again for civilians at the head of the transition before the lifting of sanctions, he does not give in in the room.
He asks for the time to consult.
Position weakened by the transition charter
By going to Accra, the document that the junta delegation had in its pocket actually weakened its position.
This text is the transition charter resulting from national consultations.
Presented as the result of "
popular discussions
", he proposes at the head of the transition, in particular a civilian or military president, a vice-president who has visibly more power than the president, and a prime minister.
But more importantly, it is the junta that will form the committee to appoint the president.
ECOWAS refused to validate this document, demanding a civilian president and prime minister.
Here, if for example the URD, a major political party of the M5, the protest movement which contributed to the fall of President IBK, takes note of the transition charter, the other members of the M5 reject the document which does not correspond , they say, to the expressed popular will.
The junta is therefore on this point contested from the outside, and also partly from the inside.
If she wants to convince, she has to work on at least two fronts.
And also review why not its copy, in order to obtain the total lifting of the sanctions.
No military vice-presidency as powerful as the president
What should the junta do now?
For the host of this summit, the Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo, “
once the structures of the transition are in place, the president, the prime minister, the government, it goes without saying that the national council of salvation of the people [CNSP] will be dissolved.
since it will be the transition that will already be in place
”.
Does ECOWAS thus leave the vice-presidency to the junta?
“
For us,”
replied the Ghanaian president, “
the vice-presidency was not really a substantive issue that was debated.
But we believe that if indeed, at the level of the CNSP, the vice-presidency should be occupied by them, they could occupy it but only for questions of defense and security.
Second, this vice-president cannot replace the president in the event of a vacancy.
That is clear and clean at our level.
"
With the sub-regional institution, the dialogue is not broken.
In Accra, Mali's new strongman saw three heads of state on the sidelines of the summit, those of Ghana, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
We see him at the end, posing with the others for the family photo.
He did not give an interview to the press.
The one who appeared as a shy and reserved leader left for Bamako.
Another appointment will still be necessary.
The ECOWAS special envoy, Goodluck Jonathan, is again expected in Bamako.
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To read also: Mali: ECOWAS remains inflexible in the face of the junta
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