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West African leaders meeting at the summit in Nigeria again demanded, Sunday, December 12, elections in Mali in February and will impose additional sanctions from 1er January 2022 without any commitment from the Malian authorities in this regard.
“The Heads of State, after long discussions, decided to maintain the date of February 27, 2022 for the organization of elections in Mali. They decided to enter into force additional sanctions in January 2022 “ if the authorities do not honor their initial commitment to hold elections on that date that are supposed to bring civilians back to power, the president of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) told the press. , Jean-Claude Kassi Brou.
Gathered in Abuja, the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the Malian authorities until December 31 to present a plan for the holding of the elections on the scheduled date. Failing this, sanctions, the nature of which has not been specified, will come into force on 1er January 2022, we learned from a source close to ECOWAS.
The ECOWAS mediator in the crisis, Goodluck Jonathan, will visit Mali in the coming days for discussions with the authorities, said this source.
“Detailed chronogram”
The ECOWAS therefore ignored the attempt to appease the Malian transitional president, Colonel Assimi Goïta, who had undertaken to submit an electoral calendar before January 31, and also decided to maintain the sanctions against the junta which seized power in Guinea on September 5 through a putsch. They demanded a timetable for the return of civilians to the head of the country.
Before the summit, Colonel Goïta, who came to the head of the Sahelian country by a putsch in August 2020 and reinforced by a second coup d’état in May 2021, wrote to the current presidency of the organization. “The Republic of Mali, through my voice, undertakes to provide you with a detailed timetable no later than January 31, 2022”, he said in this two-page letter obtained by AFP.
At the previous summit on November 7, West African leaders had taken note of the formalization by the Malian authorities that they would not respect their commitment to organize at the end of February 2022 presidential and legislative elections which would bring civilians back to the leadership of the country, plunged into a deep multifaceted crisis, both security and political and economic.
ECOWAS had frozen financial assets and banned all those it deemed guilty of delaying the elections from traveling within West Africa: around 150 personalities, including the prime minister and almost the entire government, as well as their families. .
To justify an electoral postponement, the duration of which is unknown, the Malian government invokes persistent insecurity.
Since independence and jihadist insurgencies in 2012, this poor and landlocked country has been given over to the actions of groups affiliated with Al-Qaida 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.
Despite the deployment of UN, French and foreign forces, violence has spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. No improvement has been observed in Mali since the seizure of power by the military.
“Absolute priority”
In his letter, Colonel Goïta does not elaborate on the acuteness of the security situation, illustrated by the massacre of more than 30 civilians by suspected jihadists and the death of seven peacekeepers killed by an explosive device in December in the center of the country.
He invokes the efforts undertaken to “Create the conditions conducive to the holding of transparent and credible elections” : “Intensification” operations to secure the territory, presentation of an electoral law and launch, on Saturday, of consultations (National refoundation meeting) presented by the government as an essential prerequisite.
These Assises are supposed to lead to recommendations for fundamental reforms. The merits of the Assises are highly contested in Mali.
“The return to constitutional order is and will remain my top priority”, assures Colonel Goïta.
After Mali, the ECOWAS was confronted in September with its third putsch in a year in the sub-region, with the overthrow in Guinea of President Alpha Condé.
It suspended Guinea from its instances and individually sanctioned the members of the junta. She called for elections to be held within six months.
The strongman of Guinea, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, has pledged to return power to civilians. But he refuses to be dictated by a transition period.