ECOWAS: Mali junta condemns border closures, trade embargo

• Junta reciprocates, recall ambassadors, close border

Mali’s military junta on Monday condemned in strong terms the West African leaders’ sanctions, border closures as well as a trade embargo over delays to a return to civilian rule, alleging that the regional leaders were allowing themselves to be “exploited” by foreign powers.

However, the junta in a tit-for-tat move also announced the recall of its ambassadors and the closure of its borders.

The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) according to a final declaration at their meeting on Sunday agreed to cut financial aid and freeze Mali’s assets at the Central Bank of West African States,

The leaders also decided to recall their ambassadors to Mali during the extraordinary closed-door gathering in Ghana.

The ECOWAS leaders asserted that a proposal by Mali’s military rulers to hold elections in December 2026 “simply means that an illegitimate military transition government will take the Malian people hostage during the next five years”.

The junta’s spokesman, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga while responding with a statement read on national television Monday, said it “strongly condemned these illegal and illegitimate sanctions”.

The junta lamented that the measures would “affect populations already severely affected by the security crisis and the health crisis” and added that it had made arrangements to ensure normal supplies “by all appropriate means”.

Recall that the meeting followed months of increasing tensions over the timetable for restoring civilian rule in Mali after two coups and a military takeover.

The ECOWAS new sanctions are now even tougher than those imposed after the first coup in August 2020, which are presumed to have forced the junta at the time to agree to returning power to civilians within 18 months of elections.

Unfortunately, the current military junta citing the security situation in the country says it is not able to organise elections as planned at the end of February.

What has played out in Mali is that since the first coup in which army officers led by Colonel Assimi Goita toppled the elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, ECOWAS has continued to push for a return to civilian rule as soon as possible.

Although Goita promised to restore civilian rule in February 2022 after holding presidential and legislative elections due to threat of sanction, he staged a second coup in May 2021.

Gotia’s staged the second coup thereby forcing out an interim civilian government, disrupting the reform timetable, and provoking extensive diplomatic condemnation.

ECOWAS did not impose sanctions immediately after Mali’s second putsch in May 2021, but in November agreed to impose targeted measures against individual junta members over perceived delays in the election preparations.

The ECOWAS 15-nation bloc has insisted that Mali honour its commitment and hold elections by February 27.

The junta then said it would set an election date only after holding a nationwide conference, arguing a peaceful vote was more important than speed.

The junta then sent two ministers to Accra on Saturday to submit a new proposed timetable with a view “to maintain dialogue and good cooperation with ECOWAS”, according to Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop.

A senior official from Ghana, which holds the ECOWAS chair, has described Mali’s counter-proposal for a four-year transition as a joke.

Mali government has been struggling to quell a jihadist insurgency that has raged since 2012.

The ECOWAS leaders had maintained sanctions such as asset freezes and travel bans within the ECOWAS region against around 150 military junta and their families, and threatened further “economic and financial” measures.