By John Ikani
The West African bloc, ECOWAS on Saturday, postponed its decision of imposing further sanctions on Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso after its leaders failed to agree on what action to take against the military juntas in each of those three countries.
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo opened the summit, attended by the heads of state of most of the 15-member countries but without any representative from Mali, Burkina Faso or Guinea visible in the audience.
ECOWAS will convene again on July 3 before determining if further sanctions will be implemented in the three suspended members states, ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said.
Guinea, Burkina Faso and Mali are currently suspended from ECOWAS bodies.
While Mali has already been slapped with sanctions, the other two countries risk further punitive measures from the bloc after ruling juntas in their respective capitals vowed to hold on to power for another three years.
The wave of military coups began in August 2020, when Colonel Assimi Goita and other soldiers overthrew Mali’s democratically elected president. Nine months later, he carried out a second coup when he dismissed the country’s civilian transitional leader and became president himself.
Mutinous soldiers deposed Guinea’s president in September 2021, and Burkina Faso’s leader was ousted in yet another coup in the region back in January.
The political upheaval came at a time when many observers were starting to think that military power grabs were a thing of the past in West Africa: Mali had gone eight years without one, while Guinea had made it 13 years.
