Ahead of an ECOWAS summit, the governing junta in Guinea has attacked the organization’s current president violently, calling his comments from Wednesday a “disgrace.”
The junta charged the president of ECOWAS with using “clown diplomacy” in the attack on Thursday (September 22).
“The crude lie and the remarks which are similar to intimidation are nowadays retrograde practices which do not honor its author and tarnish at the same time the brand image of ECOWAS. We cannot bear this shame,” said Colonel Amara Camara, secretary general of the transitional presidency.
“We are not in a relationship of clowns or reality TV,” he added.
Colonel Camara attributed Umaro Sissoco Embalo, the president of the Bissau-Guinean Republic at the time, for making statements to France 24 and RFI on Wednesday.
If the junta, which took over Guinea by force in September 2021, continued to seek to rule for three years, Mr. Embalo had threatened that Guinea would suffer “severe penalties.”
He reiterated that he had reached a deal with the junta to hand over power to elected citizens after two years during a trip to Guinea, which Colonel Camara called “lies.”
On Thursday afternoon, leaders of ECOWAS member states are anticipated to meet in New York on the fringes of the UN General Assembly. The situation in Guinea and the conflict between Mali and the Ivory Coast are expected to be the top items on their agenda.
