Editor’s Note: The title of this article has been changed to read ‘ECOWAS Suspends Mali’. It originally read “ECOWAS drops Mali from regional bloc, calls for strict respect of the constitution”. However, because of a review by PESACHECK who argued that by using the word ‘drop’ in the title, it made the whole story false, it has now been edited to reflect the exact words used in the ECOWAS Press Release.
The past 24 hours have been some of the most historic in Mali as the military took upon itself to pull President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita down from power, two years into his five-year mandate. After condemning the move, the Economic Community for West African States, ECOWAS has taken action against the Sahel nation.
Describing the soldiers as “military putschists”, ECOWAS in a statement noted that they will be accountable for the security of President Keita and other arrested officials.
In addition to calls for the president’s release, ECOWAS announced its suspension of Mali “from all ECOWAS decision-making bodies with immediate effect, as per the Additional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance”.
This is expected to ensue “till the reestablishment of effective constitutional order,” the West African leaders have said.
ECOWAS has also said its member States would seal all their air and land borders with Mali and will pledge for sanctions against the “putschists and their partners.”
Today’s ECOWAS suspension of Mali comes eight years after similar action was taken in 2012 when a coup was led by soldiers unhappy with the way President Amadou Toumani Toure’s government had been handling a Tuareg insurgency in northern Mali.
The soldiers who ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta say they plan to set up a civilian transitional government and hold new elections, adding that, they acted to prevent the country from falling further into chaos.
France, the AU, the UN, and other international bodies have in separate outings, condemned the coup in Mali.
(C) Mimi Mefo Info