Lawmakers in Mali have unanimously approved a plan allowing the military junta to rule for up to five years.
No date has yet been set for future polls.
Elections had been due last month but were cancelled by Mali’s military leaders, prompting economic sanctions by regional bloc ECOWAS.
Mali is now taking legal action to lift sanctions imposed by West Africa’s monetary union, Uemoa, as it battles a debt crisis.
Akufo-Addo calls for transition in Mali over 12 months
President Akufo-Addo has suggested that a 12-month transition period should suffice in the quest to restore constitutional rule in Mali, one of three states in the West African sub-region that has suffered a coup d’état in the past 18 months.
The president also suggested that similar or shorter transition periods can also be negotiated in the cases of Guinea and Burkina Faso.
Speaking in an interview with France 24’s Marc Perelman on the sidelines of his visit to Brussels to attend the European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit, President Akufo-Addo said that he and colleague Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) heads of state had rejected the five-year transition plan proposed by the military junta in Mali because it was completely unacceptable.
Acceptable frameworks
President Akufo-Addo said that ECOWAS, of which he is currently the chair, is prepared to work towards a more acceptable transition period in Mali and the other two states that have also suffered a coup d’état.
“Clearly, the proposal that has been put on the table by the Malian authority is unacceptable. My own feeling from talking to my peers is that a 12-month period would be an acceptable framework,” the president said.
“You hear it from my month, but that is not ECOWAS policy. We need to engage, sit down and find out how that can work out,” Akufo-Addo continued.
On the situation in Guinea and Burkina Faso, President Akufo-Addo said it is incumbent on the military regimes in those countries to propose their transition plans to ECOWAS within acceptable timelines.
ECOWAS instability
In the past year and a half, there have been four coups d’état in the ECOWAS sub-region alone.
The first military takeover occurred in Mali on 18 August 2020 and the second on 24 May 2021 in the same country.
The third unconstitutional assumption of power took place on 5 September 2021 in Guinea. The latest seizure of power occurred on 24 January 2022 in Burkina Faso.
Demands
After each of the recent coups d’état in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, ECOWAS heads of state have imposed sanctions on the new military leaders and demanded that the junta in each of the three countries take immediate steps to restore democratic rule locally.
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