ECOWAS toughens individual sanctions against the military in power in Mali and Guinea

Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, president of the ECOWAS Commission, here in Conakry, October 27, 2020. Carol Valade / RFI

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End of the extraordinary summit of heads of state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Accra.

Main decision: hardening of individual sanctions against Malian and Guinean leaders.

During the closed session, according to information from our special envoy Serge Daniel, mention was made of an official letter in which the Malian government announced that it could not hold the presidential and legislative elections in February 2022, as originally planned.

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With our special correspondent in Accra,

For Guinea, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, president of the ECOWAS Commission held a press conference in Accra in front of a forest of microphones, where he said that the heads of state insisted on the urgency of releasing the former president Alpha Condé, who is a prisoner of the coup plotters in Conakry. Another point about Guinea is the evolution of the transition. The Heads of State of ECOWAS have taken note of the formalization of the Transition Charter. So good point for the Guinean authorities. A civilian Prime Minister has been appointed, as well as a government, but ECOWAS wants a timetable for going to the elections. ECOWAS proposes six months.

Given the situation of the military coup and the government that was not democratically elected, ECOWAS maintains and strengthens its sanctions against the Guinean authorities and add to this that there is now a special envoy who was now appointed in Guinea, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, who knows the sub-region well.

Mali: sanctions against the transitional authorities 

According to Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, the President of the Commission, there were also long discussions on Mali. We make two observations: the security situation has deteriorated. Mali must be helped on this point. Second point is the electoral process in principle scheduled for February 27, 2022. We were supposed to have elections, the schedule will not be respected because the Malian government has officially written to say that it cannot hold the elections.

The ECOWAS considered that it was absolutely necessary to maintain the date of February 27, 2022 since it was retained by the authors of the coup d'état in Bamako.

Decision was taken to immediately sanction "

".

There is a travel ban, financial assets and this will also affect, according to ECOWAS, their families via other details.

So this is the main decision that was taken on Mali.

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• ECOWAS

• Guinea

• Mali