ECOWAS Cages, Chokes Mali With Tougher Sanctions

The Economic Community of West African States tightened the noose around the neck of Mali’s military junta.

The regional body rose from an Extraordinary Summit of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government in Accra, Ghana, on Sunday, January 9, 2021, and imposed stiffer sanctions against the junta which has just announced a five year-transitional programme, a phony arrangement many political experts interpret as a ploy by the junta to cling to power indefinitely .

Top on the list of additional sanctions on the military junta in Mali is the withdraw all ECOWAS Ambassadors in the country. ECOWAS ordered that land and air borders between the ECOWAS member states and Mali be shut.

Nigeria was represented at the extraordinary summit by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. The meeting was presided over by its chariman and Ghana’s President, Nana Dankar Akuffo-Ado

The sanctions were the nucleus of a press statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Pastor Laolu Akande, on Monday. The statement was titled:”ECOWAS countries to shut all borders against Mali, recall ambassadors, reject junta’s transition schedule”.

After reviewing the situation in Mali at the Extraordinary Summit, the sub-regional leaders also rejected the transition schedule proposed by the Malian military junta, noting that “the proposed chronogram for a transition is unacceptable”.

The bloc also imposed additional sanctions on the junta, including: the withdrawal of all ECOWAS Ambassadors in Mali, closure of land and air borders between ECOWAS countries and Mali, suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between the ECOWAS Member States and Mali—except essential consumer goods; pharmaceutical products; medical supplies and equipment, including materials for the control of COVID-19 products, and electricity.

Others are: the freezing of the Republic of Mali assets in ECOWAS Central Banks, freezing of assets of the Malian State and the State Enterprises and Parastatals in Commercial Banks, and suspension of Mali from all financial assistance and transactions from financial institutions.

According to a communique issued after the meeting, the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government “instructs all Community institutions to take steps to implement these sanctions with immediate effect.”

It also noted that the sanctions will only be gradually lifted “after an acceptable and agreed transition chronogram is finalised and monitored-satisfactory progress is realised in the implementation of the chronogram for the elections.”