61st ECOWAS summit: behind the scenes of the closed session of heads of state
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo Addo (left), Jean-Claude Kassi-Brou, President of the ECOWAS Commission and Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara during the 61st ECOWAS summit in Accra, July 3, 2022. © REUTERS / Francis Kokoroko
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The 61st ordinary summit of ECOWAS Heads of State was held this Sunday, July 3, 2022, in Accra.
The decisions announced on Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea were taken behind closed doors in an ultra-guarded conference room, only VIP badges could lie in the corridors or have access.
Go behind the scenes of this high-level meeting.
Advertising
Read more
With our special correspondent in Accra
,
Jean-Luc Aplogan
Just after the opening
, the Heads of State asked to keep to themselves.
Ministers, collaborators, special guests emptied the room.
It lasted an hour and that's when the election of Umarou Sissoko Emballo, the president of Guinea-Bissau, was decided.
Those who did not want him suggested to Nana Akufo-Addo, releasing him, to stay six more months.
Without success.
Last joker, the Nigerian Bazoum, also declined.
Embalo had just won his term as current president of the regional organization.
How was the lifting
of sanctions threats
against Burkina Faso decided?
In the middle of the session, Saleh Annadif, head of Minusma in West Africa, joins the Minister of Foreign Affairs and asks her for a broken promise, namely the document which orders the total release of deposed President Kaboré.
The Issoufou mediator, whose work was highly appreciated, receives him a few minutes later.
Another file, Guinea.
The confidences report that the Nigerian Bazoum told his peers that the putschists should not stand for election.
“
Coups must be crimes that cannot be prescribed
”, added the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Benin.
As for the mediator Ibn Chambas, challenged by the Guinean junta, he split a declaration: “
If I am the problem I withdraw, it will be the occasion to test the good faith of Mamadi Doumbouya
.
»
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Ghana
ECOWAS
mali
Burkina Faso
Guinea