( 5 minutes read)
· ECOWAS -the Economic Community of West African States’ -leaders said that they would dispatch envoys to Mali to help secure the return of constitutional order and insisted that the ousted Malian president be restored to office.
· Rebel soldiers launched a mutiny in a barracks on the outskirts of Bamako. They declared that they had taken the power and detained President Boubacar Keita.and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse.
ECOWAS -the Economic Community of West African States’ -leaders said that they would dispatch envoys to Mali to help secure the return of constitutional order and insisted that the ousted Malian president be restored to office.
West African leaders are taking seriously the developments in Mali that has seen usurping democracy. In a strongly worded statement recorded in a video, the group leaders said that peace should be restored in the west African country at the earliest and the ousted government should be restored. The leaders said that Mali is in a serious situation. If anarchy prevails, it would trigger terrorism and organized crime. Country, they said, needs solidarity and peace at the critical hour. The leaders also called for immediate release of wrongfully detained leaders.
Rebel soldiers launched a mutiny in a barracks on the outskirts of Bamako. They declared that they had taken the power and detained President Boubacar Keita.and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse.
The National Committee for the Salvation of the People, the military junta is calling themselves as saviors and says that they would conduct elections. It is led by colonel named Assimi Goita. The junta has vowed to stage elections within a “reasonable time” and respect “all past agreements,” including international anti-jihadist missions.
This is the second time in Mali power has been usurped by the military junta; the last one, in 2012, which was followed by an insurrection in the north of the country which then developed into a jihadist insurgency that later spilled over to Niger and Burkina Faso. Removal of Keita’s came after months of protests in which ECOWAS had unsuccessfully tried to mediate.
ECOWAS has 15 members, including Mali. but within hours of Keita’s overthrow, the group announced it was suspending the country from its internal decision-making bodies and told that its members would close land and air borders to Mali and pledged to demand sanctions against “all the putschists and their partners and collaborators”. The UN also denounced the take over by the military junta and asserted that its peacekeeping mission in the country will continue in line with its support for the Malian people.
Several African countries have shut their borders to Mali in disapproval. The European Union condemned the situation- calling for the immediate release of the detained leaders. European Council President, Charles Michel, following a 27 European leader summit, stated the collective concern about the recent developments and cautioned that priority must be placed on the stability and the fight against terrorism in the region.
