The Economic Community of West African States have suspended MALI from the West African Regional bloc.
This was announced at the meeting of the bloc’s heads which held in Accra, Ghana, on Sunday.
Former Nigerian president, Goodlluck Jonathan, had briefed the meeting behind closed-doors on his mediatory trips to Mali.
Shirley Botchwey Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, said that the Mali junta’s non-adherence to the mediatory role of ECOWAS necessitated the decision of ECOWAS leaders.
A communiqué released after the meeting stated that an excellent summit was conducted to review the socio-political crisis in Mali following the arrest, detention and subsequent resignations of the president and the prime minister of the transition on May 26, as well as to determine the next line of action for the transition.
ECOWAS leaders condemned the arrests, saying the move violated mediation steps taken in the aftermath of the August coup. The bloc demanded that Malian authorities immediately release the pair who were kept under house arrest.
It also went on to express “strong and deep concerns over the present crisis in Mali”, which it noted “is coming halfway to the end of the agreed transition period, in the context of the security challenges related to incessant terrorist attacks and the COVID-19 Pandemic with its dire socio-economic impacts”.
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