West African leaders lift Mali economic sanctions
Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have lifted economic and financial sanctions imposed on Mali, after its military rulers proposed a 24-month transition to democracy and published a new electoral law.
The bloc imposed stiff sanctions on Mali in January after the military government said it would not organise democratic elections the following month as initially planned.
Ecowas Commission President Jean Claude Kassi Brou told a news conference on Sunday that the sanctions will be lifted immediately. Borders with Mali will reopen and regional diplomats will return to Bamako.
“However, the heads of state decided to maintain individual sanctions, and the suspension of Mali from Ecowas until the return to constitutional rule,” he said.
Enormous progress
The individual sanctions targeted members of the ruling military government and the transitional council.
Sanctions have crippled Mali’s economy, raising humanitarian concerns amid widespread suffering. The country has defaulted on more than $300 million of its debt due to the sanctions, which cut it off from the regional financial market and the regional central bank.
The ECOWAS mediator in Mali, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, visited the country last week. A member of his entourage told AFP that Mali had made “enormous progress”. Mali’s top diplomat Abdoulaye Diop on Friday said the recent political developments were moving the country towards a lifting of the sanctions.
Ecowas leaders had gathered to assess efforts to secure timetables and other guarantees for restoring civilian rule in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso. Mali underwent coups in August 2020 and May 2021, followed by Guinea in September 2021 and Burkina Faso this January.
The West African leaders meeting in Accra also accepted a pledge from the military that seized power in Burkina Faso to restore constitutional order in 24 months.
Kassi Brou said that after a lengthy discussion with the coup leaders in Burkina Faso, a new proposal for a 24-month transition was more acceptable, after the heads of state rejected a proposed 36-month transition.
Economic and financial sanctions on Burkina Faso were also lifted, he said. The situation appears more complex in Guinea, whose military government has refused an Ecowas mediator and announced a 36-month transition – a period that African Union Chairman and Senegalese President Macky Sall has described as “unthinkable”.
