Mali will be saddled with additional sanctions by the end of the month if there’s no progress in preparations for new elections by February, the Economic Community of West African States warned.
“The sanctions notably include economic and financial sanctions,” ECOWAS said in a statement after a summit in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Sunday.
The regional bloc further decided to uphold sanctions against transitional leaders imposed last month, including travel bans and a freeze on financial assets on all members of the transitional authority and their families.
Mali’s interim government, which took power following the military’s overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, had promised to oversee an 18-month transition back to constitutional rule, culminating in elections in February 2022.
The current government, led by Col. Assimi Goita, informed ECOWAS of its inability to meet the transition deadline of February 2022 in November.
ECOWAS further “calls on the international community” to support the implementation of sanctions imposed on Mali and Guinea, ruled by an interim government following the putsch in September that brought to an end the rule of President Alpha Conde. Guinea’s interim president, Col. Mamadi Doumbouya, who led the coup, has not yet set a date for the country’s elections.
Goita last year appointed an interim government to oversee the transition, only for him to stage a second coup in May to oust the interim president and take over the position himself.
