At a regional conference on Saturday, West African heads of state decided against penalizing the leaders of Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso any more, as coup leaders in all three countries maintain that new elections will take years.
The Economic Community of West African Nations (ECOWAS), a 15-nation regional group, will meet again on July 3 to decide whether additional sanctions will be imposed on the three suspended members states, according to ECOWAS Commission President Jean Claude Kassi Brou.
The regional bloc’s latest attempt to compel military commanders in the three African countries to restore constitutional order and hold democratic elections took place on Saturday.
Each of the three nations’ coup leaders has set political transition timelines that are far longer than the regional bloc’s demands.
Brou urged the international community to step up aid, particularly in Mali and Burkina Faso, where the humanitarian situation has deteriorated due to, among other things, the security situation.
“We have the impact of the very terrible rainy season, the impact of the Ukraine-Russian war, and, of course, we have the issue of the many internally displaced folks, the number of whom has significantly escalated,” he said.
ECOWAS placed tough economic sanctions on Mali in January, effectively shutting down most trade as well as land and air crossings with other ECOWAS members.
Those efforts, however, have yet to result in a power shift. Col. Assimi Goita has further isolated the country internationally in the months since, withdrawing from a regional security force and shutting down major French media stations.
Despite agreeing to an 18-month transition back to democracy, Goita’s government insisted in April that no poll be place until 2024, effectively extending their stay in power to nearly four years.
Goita and others deposed Mali’s democratically elected president in August 2020, kicking off a spate of military coups.
He staged a second coup nine months later, dismissing the country’s civilian interim government and assuming power himself.
Guinea’s president was toppled by mutinous soldiers in September 2021, while Burkina Faso’s government was deposed in a regional coup in January.
The political upheaval occurred at a time when many observers thought military power grabs in West Africa were a thing of the past: Mali had gone eight years without one, and Guinea had gone 13 years without one.
