Mali said Sunday it was withdrawing from a west African force fighting jihadists to protest its being rejected as head of the G5 regional group, which also includes Mauritania, Chad, Burkina and Niger.

“The government of Mali is deciding to withdraw from all the organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel, including the joint force” fighting the jihadists, it said in a statement.

The G5 Sahel was created in 2014 and its anti-jihadist force launched in 2017.

A conference of heads of state of the G5 Sahel scheduled for February 2022 in Bamako had been due to mark “the start of the Malian presidency of the G5”.

But nearly four months after the mandate indicated this meeting “has still not taken place”, the statement said.

Bamako “firmly rejects the argument of a G5 member state which advances the internal national political situation to reject Mali’s exercising the G5 Sahel presidency”, the statement said, without naming the country.

The Mali government said “the opposition of some G5 Sahel member states to Mali’s presidency is linked to manoeuvres by a state outside the region aiming desperately to isolate Mali”, without naming that country.

Mali has been since January 9 the target of a series of economic and diplomatic sanctions from west African states to punish the military junta’s bid to stay in power for several more years, following coups in August 2020 and May 2021.

The junta has opted for a two-year transition while the Economic Community of West African States has urged Bamako to organise elections in 16 months maximum.

Beyond Mali and Burkina, the G5 Sahel, composed of around 5,000 troops, includes Mauritania, Chad and Niger.

The military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso are undermining the regional force’s operational capacity, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a report to Security Council on May 11.

“I am deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Sahel, as well as by the potentially debilitating effect the uncertain political situation in Mali, Burkina Faso and beyond will have on efforts to further operationalise the G5-Sahel Joint Force,” Guterres’ report said.

Source: AFP

Burkina Faso’s interim president, Paul-Henri Damiba, has approved a new government, retaining the defense minister who served in the Roch Kabore government before his ouster in a January coup.

Damiba was sworn in on Wednesday as the transitional president for three years, almost two months after spearheading a coup against Kabore.

According to an official decree, the 25-member new cabinet includes General Barthelemy Simpore, the former defense minister, who has surprisingly retained his position.

The appointment of economist Albert Ouedraogo as the West African nation’s transitional prime minister was announced on Thursday.

Burkina Faso’s military coup was the fourth in West Africa in less than two years, following two in Mali and one in Guinea, reaffirming the region’s reputation as the ‘coup belt.’

Last week, the country adopted a transitional charter that would allow the junta to lead a three-year transition period.

A “national forum” of political parties, trade unions, and grassroots groups approved the charter after a day-long debate in the capital, Ouagadougou.

The charter was later signed by junta leader, Lieutenant Colonel Henri-Paul Damiba, last Tuesday.

Damiba has had first-hand experience of the insurgency by Takfiri terrorists.

He was commander of the 3rd Military Region, before seizing power, which covers eastern Burkina Faso – one of the worst-hit areas.

A military official, speaking after the coup, described Damiba as “a tough commander who has been on the front line with his men”.

In late January, Burkina Faso was suspended from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) to pressure the country to return to constitutional order.

Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been under relentless attack from Takfiri groups linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh that seek control of its natural resources.

Sources

The new decade has brought about a series of seismic changes in the African political system. There has been an increase of the number of coups across the continent that has seen long standing head of states lose power. Despite this, there still remains a number of African leaders who have continued to consolidate their power through constitutional changes and have constructed legal dictatorships.

Here are the 10 longest serving African leaders in 2022:

10. Alassane Ouattara

Alassane Ouattara has been the president of Ivory Coast since 2010. Prior to his presidency, he was the Prime Minister of Ivory Coast and worked as an economist for the IMF and the Central Bank of West African States. He recently won a 5-year term in 2020 in what can be considered a constitutional coup.

Ouattara assumed his position after a bloody power struggle with then incumbent President, Laurent Gbagbo, after a stalemate in the 2010 elections. With the aid of France and the US, Ouattara’s military forces arrested Gbagbo and he became de facto leader

Ouattara has continued his repressive streak as his government is known for corruption, cronyism, and human right abuses. The state of Ivory Coast is nuanced. Economic growth has been around 7% since he took over. The government has invested heavily in telecommuting, electricity and roads but poverty, education and healthcare remain a huge challenge.

9. Faure Gnassingbe

Faure Gnassingbe has been the President of Togo since 2005. After the sudden death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, he was installed by the military has head of state which resulted in international and domestic backlash. After resigning and winning the hotly contested elections of 2005, he has become a mainstay. Gnassingbe won his fourth term in 2020 after removing presidential term limits amidst of allegations of rigging the elections.

Like his father, Gnassingbe rules the country with an iron fist. He ordered the arrest of his half brother and former defence minister on suspicion of planning a coup attempt in 2009. The constitutional changes he proposed in 2017 to allow him to continue to stand for election were heavily protested by opposition leaders and the people of Togo. The resistance was harshly squashed as the military used live bullets, teargas and internet blackouts.

8. Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame is the current president of Rwanda and has been since 2000. He has won three terms. He rose to power after defeating the Rwandan National Army to end the genocidal war that broke out in Rwanda in 1994 as the leader of the RPF rebel forces.

In his current 22-year long reign, Kagame has been lauded for his efforts that have stabilized the economy and promoted economic growth, but he is also known for his tyrannical streak. It said that Kagame has defence agency networks dedicated to assassinating, imprisoning, and exiling his critics.

Rwanda has somewhat benefitted from leadership as he has been able to procure vast amounts of foreign aid that has helped the country greatly. Government reports claim to have lifted 1 million people out of poverty between 2008 and 2012 and that the country’s economy has grown by a steady 8% in the same time frame.

7. Ismali Omar Gulleh

Ismali Omar Gulleh has ruled over Djibouti since 1999. He succeeded his uncle, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, after being in his cabinet as head of national security and chief of staff for more than 20 years.

Known by many as a dictator, Guelleh has been in power for 22 years and 5 terms. In the latest election, held in 2021, He beat his only opponent, Zakaria Farah, by winning over 97% of the votes. The lead up to the alleged rigged elections was marked by street protests by the people of the country as they have grown tired of Guelleh’s suppressive reign.

Guelleh’s regime has been characterized by inequality, corruption, poverty, unemployment, restriction of free press, rampant malnutrition, and poor healthcare systems. The country is not poor by any means, but Guelleh has turned it into a commercial state-city controlled by one man.

6. Isaias Afwerki

Isaias Afwerki has held the office of the President of Eritrea since the country gained its independence in 1991. As a revolutionary, he led the Eritrean Liberation Front to victory, ending the country’s 30-year long war for independence. He continues to lead both the country and the only legitimate party in the country.

Afwerki’s reign has been marked by the lack of elections, constitution, parliament or independent judiciary. The president is an authoritarian who uses his considerable power to eliminate rivals and free press. He has gone as far as aiding Islamist extremist groups in Somalia in order to destabilize neighbouring Ethiopia.

Eritrea remains one of the world’s poorest countries. Poverty rates are exacerbated by war and drought. The country is plagued by homelessness, disease and a lack of water, educational and healthcare systems.

5. King Mswati III

King Mswati III is the last absolute monarch in Africa and has reigned over Swaziland since 1986. The king assumed power as he turned 18 after receiving an education at Sherbone School in England. He routinely appoints his own cabinet, parliament and fills key governmental positions with allies and CEO’s.

The king has ruled with a ruthlessness and his methods have become more violent. The monarch’s security forces are known for extra judicial killings, unfounded arrests, detentions, and torture. This was evident in the 2021 pro-democracy protests that took over the country. Security forces enacted a dusk to dawn curfew, shut off the internet and murdered 50 people.

The king uses Swaziland’s resources as his own personal line of credit. He is listed as one of the richest monarchs and leads an extravagant lifestyle. Meanwhile, Swaziland’s unemployment rate stands at more than 46% and 65% of the people live on less than $1.25 a day.

4. Youweri Museveni

Youweri Museveni is Uganda’s 9th President and has ruled over the country since 1986. He led the rebel forces that toppled former Ugandan Presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin and recently won his sixth term in 2021.

Like so many of his authoritarian counterparts, Museveni has scrapped term limits, rigged elections, and suppressed opponents. Museveni’s regime is a display of wide-reaching corruption and an intolerance for minority groups.

Uganda is primarily plagued by rising youth employment, lack of electricity and limited infrastructure as the country lacks sufficient road and railway systems.

3. Dennis Sassou Nguesso

Dennis Nguesso has been Congo’s head of state for more than 37 years. He served his first term as president from 1979 to 1990 but was stripped of executive power and subsequently lost the 1991 presidential elections. He returned to power in 2002 after leading his rebel forces during the Congo civil war in which they ousted President Lissouba. In 2021, he won his fifth term which will see him stay in power until 2026.

Nguesso rules like a true totalitarian. Political opponents have either been jailed, exiled or are dead. Elections are routinely rigged, and dissidence is violently quelled. The population of Congo doesn’t enjoy any civic freedoms. Nguesso is well known for decades of gross corruption

Although, Congo is an oil rich country and generates huge revenues, it remains one the poorest countries. Nguesso and his allies use state resources for personal enrichment. Half the population live below the poverty line, the economy’s stagnant, civil servants go mouths without wages and hospitals rarely have the capacity to treat people.

2. Paul Biya

Paul Biya has been the president of Cameroon since 1982. He has been in office for 40 years after the resignation of President Ahmadou Ahidjo. He has won seven terms, the latest in 2018.

Biya’s presidency become more repressive with each passing year and intensified after an attempted coup in 1984. Since then, elections are often fraudulent, political opponents disappear and free speech is restricted. His French-backed regime has often targeted the Anglophone people of Cameroon resulting in a deadly crisis.

Due to widespread corruption, Cameroon is in a dire state. 40% of Cameroonians live below the poverty line. Another 6.2 million are in need of humanitarian aid. The economy is on the brink of collapse and the national currency has been devalued.

1.Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Teodoro Obiang is the longest serving African leader. He took office of the President of Equatorial Guinea in 1979 after orchestrating a military coup against his uncle, Franciso Macias Nguema. Since then, Equatorial Guinea is has one party system and the constitution of the country grants Obiang virtually all the power.

Like previous African strongmen, Obiang’s regime is characterized by unlawful kidnappings, murders, and torture of anyone who dares to criticize it. The only media outlets allowed to operate in the country are those owned by his allies. Local activists often face intimidations, harassment, and reprisals.

Equatorial Guinea is one of the leading oil producing countries in Africa and has one the highest adult literacy rates. Despite this, wealth inequality is rife due to corruption. About three quarters of the population live below the poverty line and are without access to healthcare, infrastructure or drinking water.

Source: The African Exponent

France has announced that it will withdraw thousands of troops from Mali due to a breakdown in relations with the country, a decade after launching a war without the initial approval of the United Nations or even the French parliament.

A statement signed by France and its African and European allies said on Thursday that “multiple obstructions” meant the conditions were no longer in place to operate in Mali.

The decision applies to both the 2,400 French troops in Mali, where France first deployed in 2013, and a European force of several hundred soldiers that was created in 2020.

Relations between Paris and Bamako have deteriorated since the ruling military took power in August 2020.

French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed at a news conference that France’s bases in Gossi, Menaka and Gao in Mali would be closed within the next four to six months.

“We cannot remain militarily engaged alongside de facto authorities whose strategy and hidden aims we do not share,” Macron said. The withdrawal would be carried out in an “orderly” manner, he said.

Macron also “completely” rejected the idea that France had failed its mission in the country.

Mali’s armed forces spokesperson Souleymane Dembele shrugged off France’s announcement, saying European troops had failed to curb militancy.

“I think that there has been no military solution, because terrorism has engulfed the entire territory of Mali,” he said.

Tensions have been mounting after Mali expelled its French envoy over what the country described as “hostile and outrageous” comments by the former colonial power.

Mali’s prime minister earlier this month blasted France for attempting to divide his country during a foreign military mission against terrorist groups.

Choguel Kokalla Maiga, head of the government that came to power in June 2021, said the French intervention “later turned into a de facto partition of the country.”

The Mali deployment has been fraught with problems for France. Of the country’s 53 soldiers killed in West Africa, 48 of them died in Mali.

The announcement comes at a critical time for Macron, just days before he is expected to make a long-awaited declaration that he will stand for a second term in April elections.

Macron’s priority will now be to ensure that the withdrawal does not invite comparisons with the chaotic US departure from Afghanistan last year.

A French mission began in Mali in 2013 to allegedly counter militants that Paris claims are linked to the al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorist groups. France, a former colonizer of Africa, also deployed thousands of soldiers to presumably prevent separatist forces from reaching Mali’s capital, Bamako.

The war caused several thousand deaths and more than a million people to flee their homes. There have been two military coups in little over a year, amid growing demonstrations against France’s military presence.

France has been one of the world’s colonizing countries that after many years of slavery still controls countries spread over more than 12 territories and treats their people as second-class citizens.

It has had more than 50 military interventions in Africa since 1960, when many of its former colonies gained nominal independence. Mali remains among the poorest countries in the world, but that’s not due to a lack of resources.

France currently has 5,100 troops in the arid and volatile Sahel region. Under a new plan, they will be reduced to 2,500-3,000 troops. Analysts say it is premature to call it the end of the war, but that France is entering into a new phase of the war.

France is also worried about the alleged deployment of Russian contractors in the country.

Although France remains the only Western country with a significant military presence in the Sahel, its relationship with its former African colonies has grown increasingly tense in recent months. This has led to an evident increase in anti-French sentiment.

Source: Presstv

Mali’s prime minister on Monday accused France of having sought the partition of the west African country during its military mission there, the latest flare-up in relations between Paris and Bamako.

In a 45-minute speech to diplomats gathered at his request, Choguel Kokalla Maiga denounced France, the former colonial power and a vocal critic of the military regime that appointed him.

But Maiga stopped short of calling for the departure of the anti-jihadist force that France leads in Mali.

He acknowledged that France’s military intervention in 2013 had halted a jihadist insurgency that had already captured the north of the country and threatened the south.

But, the French operation later turned into a de facto partition of the country, he argued.

The jihadists were allowed to take refuge in part of Mali’s territory, regroup and return in force from 2014, said Maiga.

And drawing a parallel with the Allied liberation of France at the end of World War II, he added: “When the French judged that (the US presence) was no longer necessary, they told the Americans to go.

“Did the Americans start insulting the French?”

Tensions have been mounting after French President Emmanuel Macron lashed out at Mali’s failure to stick to a timetable for a return to civilian rule.

Mali stepped up its denunciations of France after the European nation reportedly got the EU and the so-called West African bloc ECOWAS to sanction the people of Mali and their government.

Bamako has accused Paris of having manipulated ECOWAS into its hard line against Bamako, a theme Maiga returned to in Monday’s speech.

The aim had been to present Mali as a pariah, he said.

“We cannot be turned into vassals,” he added. “You cannot enslave the country. That is over,” he said, a reference to the country’s past as a colony of France.

Reported by AFP with additional editing by Camcordnews

The African Union has condemned a recent “wave” of military coups that has seen an unprecedented number of member states suspended from the bloc, a senior official said Sunday, the last day of its annual summit.

The putsches were among the main issues expected to be discussed at the summit, along with the AU’s ties to Israel and its response to a grinding war in the north of host country Ethiopia.

Less than two weeks before the summit began Saturday, Burkina Faso became the fourth country to be suspended by the AU after disgruntled soldiers toppled President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

Guinea, Mali and Sudan are also currently suspended.

“Every African leader in the assembly has condemned unequivocally… the wave of unconstitutional changes of government,” Bankole Adeoye, head of the AU’s Peace and Security Council, told a press conference Sunday.

“Do your research: At no time in the history of the African Union have we had four countries in one calendar year, in 12 months, been suspended,” Adeoye said.

Addressing African foreign ministers ahead of the summit, Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union Commission, denounced a “worrying resurgence” of such military coups.

But the AU has been accused of an inconsistent response, notably by not suspending Chad after a military council took over following the death of longtime President Idriss Deby Itno on the battlefield last April.

And while Adeoye touted the AU’s use of suspensions to punish coup leaders, analysts say the body must be more proactive to prevent putsches.

“It is only when crisis hits that we say, ‘Gosh, how come this country is falling apart like this so quickly?'” Solomon Dersso, founder of the AU-focused Amani Africa think-tank, told AFP this week.

Israel debate paused

Also on Sunday, leaders agreed to suspend debate on Faki’s controversial decision to accept the accreditation of Israel, postponing a potentially divisive vote.

Faki’s move last July drew protest from influential members including South Africa and Algeria which argued that it flew in the face of AU statements supporting the Palestinian Territories.

Both countries pushed to have the issue put on the summit agenda.

As the summit opened Saturday, Faki defended Israel’s accreditation, saying it could be “an instrument in the service of peace” while calling for “a serene debate”.

He also said the AU’s commitment to the Palestinian push for independence was “unchanging and can only continue to grow stronger”.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Saturday called for Israel’s accreditation to be revoked, saying it “should never be rewarded” for its “apartheid regime”.

The AU normally prizes consensus, but it was unclear how a vote would have fared, with a two-thirds majority required to overrule Faki.

Instead a six-country committee will study the issue, diplomats told AFP Sunday.

Along with South Africa and Algeria, the committee will include Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, who supported Faki’s move, as well as Cameroon and Nigeria, the diplomats said.

Israel’s foreign ministry said the AU had “rejected attempts by Algeria and South Africa to revoke” its accreditation.

“The committee’s conclusions will be presented at the African Union Summit in 2023,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ethiopia peace push

It was unclear whether the summit, most of which took place behind closed doors, substantively addressed the 15-month war in Ethiopia, which pits Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government against fighters from the northern Tigray region.

The fact that Ethiopia hosts the AU makes any intervention by the bloc especially delicate, and Faki waited until last August — nine months after fighting began — to appoint Olusegun Obasanjo as a special envoy tasked with trying to broker a ceasefire.

Ethiopia has also held a seat on the Peace and Security Council throughout the conflict, though it failed in its bid to stay on the 15-member body for the next term, diplomats said.

Adeoye said Sunday it was “not true” that the AU had been slow to respond to a war that has left thousands dead and, according to the United Nations, driven hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation.

“There was no way the AU would not engage on such a situation given its exact location in Ethiopia,” he said. Obasanjo will head to war-hit areas this week, and the AU will provide “experts from the African continent” to back up his push for dialogue, Adeoye said.

Source: AFP

Tunisian President Kais Saied on Sunday dissolved a top independent judicial watchdog accusing it of bias, the latest controversial move since he sacked the government last year.

Saied has broadened his grip on power since July 25, when he sacked the government and froze parliament before moving to rule by decree in Tunisia — the cradle of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings that ousted a series of autocratic leaders.

Many Tunisians welcomed his moves against a political system described as corrupt and ineffective, in the only democracy to have emerged from the revolts.

But political figures and rights groups have warned of a slide towards authoritarianism, and world leaders have expressed deep concern.

In a move expected to spark further unease, Saied early Sunday announced he was dissolving the Supreme Judicial Council (CSM) during a meeting with government ministers.

The council “is a thing of the past”, he said according to video footage released by the Tunisian presidency.

He accused the CSM, an independent constitutional body set up in 2016 to guarantee the good functioning and independence of the judiciary, of serving political interests.

“In this council, positions and appointments are sold and made according to affiliations,” said the head of state.

“You cannot imagine the money that certain judges have been able to receive, billions and billions,” he added.

Observers say the government is seeking to clamp down on the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, which has controlled parliament and the various governments since the 2011 revolution toppled veteran leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

‘Red line’

The president accused the CSM of corruption and of delaying politically sensitive investigations into the 2013 assassinations of left-wing opposition figures Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi.

The Islamic State group claimed both killings, while Ennahdha, which has denounced Saied’s power grab as a “coup”, has been accused by many of blocking the investigations.

“Unfortunately, in this country, some judges in the courts have manipulated the Chokri Belaid case,” said Saied in the video.

Belaid was shot three times outside his home in February 2013, and Brahmi was killed in similar circumstances in July the same year.

The “July 25 movement” — composed of Saied supporters — on Saturday called on the president to dissolve the CSM in order to “purge” the judiciary of “corrupt magistrates”.

Saied has called on supporters to “protest freely” later Sunday, when a demonstration is also due to be held to mark the ninth anniversary of Belaid’s murder.

Protesters are expected to rally outside the Tunis headquarters of the CSM.

Saied — who has also already called for a July referendum on constitutional reforms — said on Sunday he was working “on a provisional decree” to reorganise the judicial watchdog.

“One of the key rights of Tunisians is to know the truth,” he said in a statement.

Tunisians, he said, are entitled “to have a just judicial system whose conduct is overseen by judges who only implement the law”.

The CSM had been already targeted last month by Saied, when he stripped its members of social and financial benefits, including fuel subsidies, transport and living allowances.

Created in 2016, the watchdog has 45 members, two thirds of whom are judges elected by parliament, who in turn chose the remaining third.

Raoudha Karafi, honorary president of the Tunisian association of judges, has been among critics of Saied’s power grab.

She has criticised Saied in recent press remarks of seeking to undermine the independence of the judiciary, saying: “Justice is a red line.”

Source: AFP

Thousands of anti-French protesters have flocked to the streets in the Malian capital of Bamako to celebrate the expulsion of the former colonizer’s envoy from the African country.

Some 3,000 protesters attended the rally in central Bamako on Friday, waving Mali’s national flags and burning cardboard cut-outs of French President Emmanuel Macron in celebration of the French ambassador’s dismissal.

Mali expelled the French envoy last week over what the country’s transitional government described as “hostile and outrageous” comments by the former colonial power.

Paris pushed economic and other sanctions against the African country after the expulsion, and the European Union also sanctioned on Friday several Malian officials, including the country’s prime minister.

Adama Ben Diarra, a vocal Malian activist and one of those sanctioned by the EU, was one of the organizers of the Friday’s protest. He told the cheering crowd that it was an honor to be on the bloc’s sanctions list.

Diarra said the expulsion of France’s ambassador was an important step and that the next step must be the departure of over 5,100 foreign troops deployed in Mali under the pretext of fighting terrorism and Takfiri outfits linked to Daesh and al-Qaeda.

Relations between Mali and its former colonizer have turned sour after the junta, which seized power following a military coup that ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, ditched previously-planned elections in February and proposed to stay in power until 2025.

France has had more than 50 military interventions in Africa since 1960, when many of their former colonies gained nominal independence.

Anti-French sentiment is on the rise in West Africa as the security situation deteriorates despite the presence of French troops in the troubled region. France recently deployed more troops in the Sahel despite opposition to its presence there.

Mali has become increasingly engulfed in violence since a Tuareg uprising in 2012 was hijacked by extremist militants, who perpetrated ethnic killings and attacks on government forces and civilians.

In 2013, France intervened in Mali to purportedly curb militants who had captured the desert north, before deploying troops across the Sahel. While it has sent more troops and the UN has also its own peacekeeper troops in the African country, violence has continued to intensify and spread in the region.

Nearly 7,000 people died due to the fighting in Mali in 2020, according to the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data Project, while the UN declared late last year that more than two million people had been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict, a number that has quadrupled since 2019.

More than 14 million people in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Source: Presstv

The European Union on Friday imposed targeted sanctions on five members of Mali’s ruling junta, including Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga.

In a statement from EU member states the targets are accused of “actions that obstruct and undermine the successful completion of Mali’s political transition.”

In August 2020, Mali’s military ousted an elected government. The military regime has vowed a return to civilian rule but has been accused of dragging its feet.

In recent weeks tensions between Mali and former colonial power France have increased, and on Monday the junta ordered the French ambassador to leave.

France has some 4,000 troops deployed across West Africa’s Sahel region, half in Mali, and the crisis has called into question the future of its campaign against Islamist extremist militants.

“The five designated people are subject to a travel ban, which prevents them from entering or transiting through EU territories, and an asset freeze,” the statement said.

Aside from 63-year-old Maiga, the prime minister in the so-called transitional regime, four more top officials were targeted.

Also on the list is 42-year-old Malick Doaw, president of the National Transition Council and “one of the instigators and leaders of the August 18, 2020 coup”.

Colonel major Ismail Wague, 46-year-old minister for reconciliation, had announced the coup and is thus deemed to “threaten the peace, security and stability of Mali.”

Adama Ben Diarra, known as “Ben le Cerveau” or Ben the Brain, is a member of the transitional government accused of obstructing the holding of free elections.

And Ibrahim Ikassa Maiga, 50, is accused of playing a key role in the m5-REP movement that was involved in the overthrow of elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

All five figures are already subject to sanctions imposed by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS.

Source: AFP

West African leaders hold a key summit on Thursday as a series of coups buffet a region struggling with poverty and a long history of turbulence.

Emergency talks in the Ghanaian capital Accra were triggered after Burkina Faso on January 24 became the third member of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to be overtaken by the military.

Burkina followed Mali, where a coup in September 2020 was followed by a second in May 2021, and Guinea, where elected president Alpha Conde was ousted last September.

Adding to the region’s turmoil was a gun attack on Tuesday on the president of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, stoking fears that years of efforts to steer West Africa towards stability and democracy are failing.

Thursday’s one-day meeting, scheduled to start at 1000 GMT, will assess the outcome of two missions to Burkina following the coup.

Burkina was suspended from ECOWAS after rebel soldiers arrested President Roch Marc Christian Kabore amid public anger at his handling of a jihadist insurgency.

The question now is whether the country — ranked a wretched 182nd out of 189 countries in the UN’s worldwide development index — will escape economic punishment.

ECOWAS has already slapped crippling sanctions on Mali and Guinea for dragging their feet on commitments to restore civilian rule.

Those measures have included the closure of borders by ECOWAS members, an embargo on trade and financial transactions and sanctions against individuals.

Positive signs

Military chiefs from ECOWAS flew to Ouagadougou on Saturday for talks with the junta, and this was followed on Monday by a diplomatic mission led by Ghana’s foreign minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey.

Early reactions from the envoys have been positive.

“They seemed very open to the suggestions and proposals that we made. For us it’s a good sign,” Botchwey told reporters after meeting with strongman Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba and other junta members.

The talks were attended by the UN’s special representative for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mahamat Saleh Annadif, who described a “very frank exchange”.

The delegation notably met Kabore, whose wellbeing and demands for release from house arrest are major issues.

During the visit, the junta declared it had restored the constitution, which it had swiftly suspended following the coup, and named Damiba as president and head of the armed forces during a transition period.

And on Tuesday, Damiba met with political party chiefs, many of whom said they were keen to take part in the restoration of civilian rule.

But major questions remain unanswered, including the key issue of a date for elections. On January 24, the junta vowed to re-establish “constitutional order” within a “reasonable time”.

In deciding whether to impose sanctions, ECOWAS leaders have to balance the credibility of their organisation against the fragility of some of their states, especially in the Sahel.

Mali and Burkina Faso are in the throes of a nearly decade-old jihadist emergency that has claimed thousands of lives and forced at least one and a half million people from their homes.

Escalating political friction with the junta in Mali has driven Bamako closer to the Kremlin and cast a shadow over France’s anti-jihadist mission in the country.

Source: AFP