Due to the slowness of the transition to democracy since last summer's coup, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed sanctions on the leaders on Sunday, November 7. in power in Mali.

"All the transitional authorities are affected by sanctions which will come into effect immediately," the president of the ECOWAS Commission, the Ivorian Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, told AFP after the meeting. an extraordinary summit on the situation in Mali and Guinea, where the military have also taken power. These sanctions include the travel ban and the freezing of their financial assets, he said, adding that they also targeted members of their families.

According to him, "Mali has officially written" to the incumbent president of ECOWAS, the Ghanaian Nana Akufo-Addo, to notify him that it was not possible for the elections to take place on the scheduled date.

"The ECOWAS has decided to sanction all those who are involved in the delay" in the organization of the elections scheduled for February 27, 2022 in Mali, explained Jean-Claude Kassi Brou.

The "strict respect of the timetable for the transition"

According to the final communiqué, additional sanctions will be studied and proposed at the next summit in December "if the situation persists".

During a summit on September 16 in Accra, the regional organization demanded from the Malian military "strict respect for the timetable for the transition" towards the reestablishment of civilian power.

At the end of October, a UN Security Council delegation visiting Mali insisted to the authorities on the importance of respecting the electoral calendar supposed to allow the reestablishment of a civilian government. 

After the putsch of August 18, 2020 in Bamako, ECOWAS suspended Mali from its ranks and stopped financial and commercial exchanges with this country, which is in the grip of a cycle of jihadist and inter-community violence. She then lifted these sanctions after having obtained from the junta the appointment of two civilians, Bah Ndaw and Moctar Ouane, respectively as president and interim prime minister, as well as her commitment to return power to civilians within a period of 18 months maximum. But, since then, Colonel Assimi Goïta, the head of the junta, carried out a new coup in May by deposing Bah Ndaw and Moctar Ouane and by being made president of the transition.

The ECOWAS then again suspended Mali from its decision-making bodies, but did not take any new sanctions.

On October 26, Mali declared "persona non grata" the ECOWAS special representative, Hamidou Boly, accusing him of "actions incompatible with its status".

He left the country the next day.

Sanctions against Guinea

ECOWAS leaders "condemned the expulsion" of Hamidou Boly on Sunday.

They also maintained the individual sanctions already taken against the soldiers who seized power on September 5 in Guinea and the suspension of this country from the organization, said Jean-Claude Kassi Brou.

The leaders of ECOWAS member states reiterated the need to organize elections within six months in Guinea and insisted on the "urgent need to release" ousted President Alpha Condé, 83, under house arrest since the coup of state. 

They also appointed Mohamed Ibn Chambas, special envoy of ECOWAS for Guinea, a country with a troubled history, which has known for decades from the independence of authoritarian or dictatorial regimes until the election of Alpha Condé. in 2010.

At the end of October, a delegation from ECOWAS in Conakry noted a "positive dynamic" in Guinea "towards a return to constitutional order".

Progress has been made.

There are positive aspects that should be noted, "said Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, who headed the delegation, citing the adoption of a transition charter and the gradual establishment of the transition bodies.

With AFP and Reuters

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