ECOWAS: Mali junta has one week to name civilian president, prime minister
Mali’s military junta has been given a week by a grouping of regional countries to name a civilian president and prime minister.
The leaders of the15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) declared in a statement at the end of a summit on Monday that the junta in Mali had until September 15 to introduce a president and prime minister, emphasizing that they had to be civilian figures.
Earlier, ECOWAS, which has sought to pressure Mali’s junta, sustained sanctions it had imposed on the country, but welcomed steps taken by the military rulers in the past week to start talks with Mali’s political parties and civil society groups about transition.
ECOWAS member states have closed their borders with landlocked Mali and halted financial flows amid concerns that the coup could undermine democratic gains in the region.
But it was unclear what measures the body of West African countries would take if the junta failed to meet the deadline.
Talks in Mali’s capital of Bamako about transition got off to a rough start on Saturday, when supporters of the influential M5-RFP political coalition accused the junta of sidelining them. Mali’s junta postponed the first round of the talks after rising tensions with the M5-RFP.
The negotiations, which are also being held in regional capitals across Mali, will continue later this week.
ECOWAS has been urging a speedy return to civilian rule in Mali and the holding of elections within a year — a timeline that the junta, the so-called National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), has not committed to.
The junta has ruled the country since ousting President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in a military coup on August 18.
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