The Heads of State and West African governments have decided to close the border with Mali. Only essential goods will continue to flow.
Le Monde with AFP
The West African leaders met in Accra Sunday, January 9 decided to close the borders with Mali and to put the country under embargo, heavily penalizing the intention of the junta to make the country “hostage” by now in power without elections for years.
The Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), meeting in camera in the Ghanaian capital, reacted vigorously to the proposed junta came to power in August 2020 to continue to lead the country until further five years and the failure on the part of the colonels to the commitment of organizing the February 27 presidential and parliamentary elections have brought civilians to head the country.
Ecowas has decided to close the borders with Mali in the sub region and suspend trade other than staples, says a statement read at the end of the summit. It also decided to cut its financial aid and freeze the assets of Mali to the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). The members will recall their ambassadors to Mali, stage two military coups since 2020 and undergoing a major security crisis.
A poor country beset by violence
These sanctions take effect immediately, they said. They will be lifted gradually when the Malian authorities will present a “fair” schedule and that satisfactory progress will be observed in its implementation. The proposal of the Malian junta to organize the presidential in December 2026 was “totally unacceptable,” said ECOWAS. It “simply means that a military government illegitimate transition will take the Malian people hostage over the next five years.”
These sanctions are more stringent than those adopted after the first coup of August 2020. In full pandemic, they had been keenly felt in a landlocked country among the poorest in the world. They are said to have forced at the time the junta to accept a commitment to return power to civilians in 18 months after the elections.
The junta says today will not be able to organize presidential and legislative elections as scheduled in late February, citing continuing insecurity in the country affected by violence of all kinds: jihad, community, villainous .. . It stresses the need to advance reforms that elections do not suffer disputes, like the previous ones.
“This is a joke”
Since the first coup of August 2020, reinforced by that of May 2021 Colonel inducting Assimi Goïta as president of “transition,” ECOWAS urges the return of civilians as soon as possible. Sensing the West African anger, the junta had sent Saturday in Accra two government ministers responsible for submitting a revised timetable. The new offer was made in order to “maintain dialogue and good cooperation with ECOWAS,” said Saturday on national television one of the two emissaries, the foreign minister Abdoulaye Diop, without specifying the content .
“The against-Malian proposal is a four-year transition. It’s a joke,” said a Ghanaian senior official who requested anonymity, whose country currently holds the presidency of ECOWAS. For the organization whose credibility is at stake, it is to defend its fundamental governance principles, to stop the spread of fait accompli and to contain regional instability.
The ECOWAS had already suspended Mali from its governing bodies and imposed a freeze of their assets and a travel ban on 150 individuals, guilty as she obstructing the elections. These sanctions remain in force. At a summit on December 12, she brandished the threat of “economic and financial” sanctions further. But the situation called for its share of difficult decisions, exposing it to the risk of Malians shine against it, analysts say.