West Africa’s main political and economic bloc says it will give Mali’s military transitional government 12 to 16 months to arrange elections and offered Guinea’s ruling government a month to propose a democratic transition timeline.
After a summit in Accra, leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also agreed to ask Burkina Faso’s interim leaders to reduce a proposed transition of 36 months.
The bloc’s Commission President Jean Claude Kassi Brou told a news conference that this would translate to a more acceptable timeline.
West Africa has been rocked by two coups in Mali, one in Guinea and one in Burkina Faso since August 2020 and the 15-nation ECOWAS has repeatedly condemned the military takeovers, while trying to bring power back into civilian hands.
ECOWAS has already imposed sanctions on Guinea and Mali for dragging their feet on restoring constitutional order.
Kassi Brou said those measures would be gradually lifted in Mali if its leaders respected the 12- to 16-month ultimatum. Harsher penalties will hit Guinea if it misses its own April 25 deadline, he warned.
Mali’s interim government failed on a promise to hold elections in February and first said it would keep ruling until at least 2025, which was then revised down to 24 months.
Guinea, whose ex-President Alpha Conde was overthrown in September, has yet to lay out handover plans.
Meanwhile, Burkina Faso’s military government, which took over in January, has proposed relinquishing power after three years, raising eyebrows in ECOWAS.
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