Mali coup: How junta got Ecowas economic sanctions lifted

Mali’s military junta whipped up nationalist sentiments as it successfully pushed West African leaders to end the economic blockade imposed on the country following a coup.
In return for setting a firm February 2024 election deadline, Mali’s regime has secured an end to the sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
For ordinary Malians, particularly the urban population in the capital, Bamako, who consume more imported goods, the lifting of the sanctions is certainly good news.
Although the measures were not meant to curb the supply of basic essentials, in practice they were an additional pressure for traders and families already struggling to cope with the rise in world grain and fuel prices driven by the resurgence of world demand after the pandemic and then the Russian attack on Ukraine.
The sanctions were imposed in January after the junta, which seized power last year, announced a four-year delay in the transition to elected civilian rule. It has now pruned back the transition to less than two years, with elections starting in February 2024.
This was accepted by Ecowas leaders at their summit meeting in Ghana’s capital, Accra, at the weekend.
Mali’s military leaders and Prime Minister Choguel Maïga cleverly played on these popular perceptions to present themselves as the defenders of the people against bullying neighbours, who failed to appreciate the need for radical change in a country whose traditional elite had supposedly been rotted by corruption and complacency.
Over the past six months, every tough message from Ecowas or Europe and the United Nations, has been met with a defiant nationalist response from Bamako.