The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Sunday imposed economic sanctions and closed borders with Mali over delay in holding promised elections after a 2020 military coup, reported Reuters.
The announcement followed an extraordinary summit of the leaders of the 15-member ECOWAS bloc in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
In a statement issued after an emergency summit, ECOWAS said the proposed timetable for a transition back to constitutional rule was totally unacceptable.
The 15-member bloc said the additional sanctions will be imposed with immediate effect. The sanctions include the closure of land and air borders of member countries with Mali, ceasing non-essential financial transactions, and the freezing of Malian state assets in ECOWAS commercial banks and by the central bank of the eight-nation West African CFA franc zone.
The bloc has also decided to recall its member states’ ambassadors to Mali.
Notably, the transitional body had initially agreed to hold elections in February 2022. While ECOWAS continues to insist Mali should hold elections in February, the military junta has said it would set an election date only after holding a nationwide conference.
The ECOWAS said Mali’s military rulers’ proposal to hold elections in December 2025 means that an illegitimate military transition Government will take the Malian people, hostage, during the next five years.
In August 2020, Colonel Assimi Goita led Malian military ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Under international pressure, Goita promised to hold presidential and legislative elections in February 2022. But he staged a second coup forcing out an interim civilian government in May 2021, disrupting the reform timetable.
The West African bloc said it would lift the sanctions gradually lonely after the military junta proposes an acceptable election timeframe and progress is made towards implementing it.
Mali’s ruling junta has reportedly condemned the ECOWAS sanctions.
In a televised statement, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, the military spokesman, announced the recall of Bamako’s ambassadors to the West African nations involved and the closure of air and land borders with them.
