Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, current chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), arrived in Mali on Sunday for an official visit, five days after the lifting of sanctions West African.
In the aftermath of the formation of a transitional government on October 5, the regional organization lifted the sanctions, including a trade and financial embargo, imposed on Mali on August 20, two days after the putsch that toppled Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.
Nana Akufo-Addo was greeted as she stepped off the plane by Transitional President Bah Ndaw, a retired colonel, with whom he was later to speak.
He is also due to meet the transitional vice-president, who is none other than the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, then Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, former foreign minister and career diplomat.
The colonels who toppled IBK pledged to return power to elected civilian leaders after a transition period of up to 18 months.
'Our country must return to full constitutional legality, with a President of the Republic elected within the prescribed deadlines, and if possible before,' Bah Ndaw declared Friday, reading his mission letter to the transitional government at the opening of his first Council of Ministers.
Moctar Ouane's government has 25 ministers, including four colonels in strategic positions: Defense, Security, Territorial Administration and National Reconciliation.
ECOWAS lifted its sanctions after having obtained satisfaction on several of its demands: the designation of a civilian president and a transitional prime minister and the junta's renunciation of the possibility for the vice-president, Colonel Goïta, to replace the president if he is unable to attend.
Colonel Goïta announced the next day, Wednesday, the release of the eleven civilian and military figures arrested in the coup, including former Prime Minister Boubou Cissé, fulfilling another request from the regional organization. West African countries are still waiting for a major measure: the dissolution of the junta.
Source : https://taarifa.rw/president-akufo-addo-flies-to-mali-to-mediate-political-process/
