A dozen Malian political organizations on Sunday rejected the duration of the transition for a period of five years, proposed the day before by the government to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The National Refoundation Assises organized from December 11 to 30 recommended a transition lasting from 6 months to five years, without deciding. But Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said on public television on Saturday that he had presented the President of Ghana Nana Akufo Addo, current president of ECOWAS, with an extension of the transition for five years, at most, from January 1.
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In a statement released on Sunday, the “Exchange framework for political parties and groups for a successful transition“Indicates that this deadline, in addition to”violates the Transition Charter, has not been the subject of discussions in Mali and can in no way be a deep aspiration of the Malian people“. “Therefore, the executive rejects this one-sided and unreasonable timeline.He adds.
The coalition of parties had already announced its refusal to take part in the National Refoundation Assizes. He expressed this refusal on November 19 to Colonel Assimi Goïta, in power since the putsch of August 18, 2020.
West African leaders will meet for an extraordinary summit on Mali on January 9 in Accra. On December 12, they demanded elections in Mali in February and threatened to impose additional sanctions as early as January without any commitment from the Malian authorities to organize elections on February 27, 2022. But the Malian authorities notified ECOWAS that they would be unable to organize presidential and legislative elections in February 2022, as the junta had previously committed.
The Malian government invokes the persistent insecurity in this poor and landlocked country, delivered since 2012 to the actions of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization, and to violence of all kinds perpetrated by self-proclaimed self-defense militias and bandits. The regular forces are themselves accused of abuses.