West African leaders on Thursday agreed to impose gradual sanctions on Guinea’s junta over its inflexibility on setting a date to return to civilian rule, reported The Africa News.
“We have decided to take sanctions against Guinea,” Omar Alieu Touray, president of the commission of the ECOWAS bloc, told AFP after an emergency summit on Thursday.
The leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), excluding leaders of Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso suspended due to coups, met in New York where they were attending the UN General Assembly.
During the meeting, the West African leaders agreed on imposing gradual sanctions on a list of people linked to the Guinean junta who will be identified very soon by the bloc’s leadership.
On Wednesday, Emablo said three years of transition period before a return to civilian rule is unacceptable for ECOWAS. He added that the transition period is unacceptable and non-negotiable.
Guinea’s ruling military junta also slammed the ECOWAS president for his call for sanctions on Conakry if it seeks a three-year transition back to civilian rule.
The military junta accused Embalo of practicing clown diplomacy.
“The crude lie and the remarks which are similar to intimidation are nowadays retrograde practices which do not honor its author and tarnish at the same time the brand image of ECOWAS. We cannot bear this shame,” said Colonel Amara Camara, secretary general of Guinea’s transitional presidency.
“We are not in a relationship of clowns or reality TV,” he added.
The military has been in power in Guinea since a coup in September 2021 that ousted president Alpha Condé, who held power since 2010.
Notably, the West African bloc has witnessed a string of military coups in the past two years. Mali underwent coups in August 2020 and May 2021, followed by Guinea in September 2021 and Burkina Faso in January.
