The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has taken a firm decision to suspend Mali in line with provisions of the bloc.
This follows the coup d’etat staged last week by the military, leading to the arrest of the President and Prime Minister and their subsequent resignation.
At a meeting of 10 heads of state as well as other high-ranking officials in Accra on Sunday, May 30, a decision was taken to reaffirm the importance and necessity of respecting the democratic process for ascending to power, in conformity with the 2001 ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.
“They particularly condemn all actions that led to ongoing instability in Mali, and its attendant consequences in the region,” Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, told journalists after the emergency meeting of the Authority of Heads of State and Government.
The West African leaders also called for a new civilian Prime Minister to be nominated immediately while a new inclusive government is formed to proceed with the transition programme.
That programme was agreed on September 15, 2020 in Ghana to make room for an 18-month period for the country to go to polls.
The polls were scheduled to be held on February 27, 2022.
But coup leader Colonel Assimi Goïta subverted the government of President Bah Ndaw and PM Moctar Ouane on Wednesday, May 26 and declared himself president.
Ecowas says it will not recognise the new arrangement, asking its mediator, former Nigeria President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who was in attendance at Sunday’s Extraordinary Summit, to return to Bamako within a week to engage stakeholders on the recent decisions.
