Malian transitional prime minister Choguel Kokalla Maïga and almost all of his government are among about 150 personalities targeted by individual sanctions recently imposed by ECOWAS, reveals an official document from the West African regional organization obtained on Wednesday by the ECOWAS. AFP.
Colonel Assimi Goïta, transitional president and head of the junta in power since the coup of August 18, 2020, is however absent.
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Another notable absentee from this list on which there are 27 ministers in addition to the head of government: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop.
No explanation is provided for their absence in the document obtained by a correspondent for Agence France-Presse.
In addition, the 121 members of the National Transitional Council, which acts as a legislative body, are sanctioned.
The financial assets of all those on the list are frozen and they are prohibited from traveling within ECOWAS.
These sanctions also affect members of their families.
Persistent insecurity
The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), meeting at the summit on November 7, had decided to impose individual sanctions on those who, after two coups d'état in one year in the country plunged into a deep crisis, were delaying the holding of elections for a return of civilians to power.
ECOWAS indicated during this summit that it had received official confirmation from the Malian authorities that they would not be able to organize presidential and legislative elections in February 2022, as the junta had previously committed.
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The Malian government invokes the persistent insecurity in this poor and landlocked country, delivered since 2012 to the actions of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization, and to violence of all kinds perpetrated by self-proclaimed self-defense militias and bandits. The regular forces are themselves accused of abuses. Two-thirds of the country is beyond the control of the authorities.
In the document consulted by AFP, ECOWAS notes "
the absence of progress in the preparation of the elections, in particular the absence of a detailed timetable
" for the holding of these elections "
on the agreed dates
". Failure to meet the deadline is "
constituting the questioning of the essential foundations
" of the organization, says ECOWAS. ECOWAS notes that the “
heightened political uncertainties
” in Mali are contributing to the “
deterioration of the security situation
”, itself likely to compromise the stability of the region, according to it.
The ECOWAS sanctions could serve as a benchmark for a number of partners who support Mali in the crisis.
France, militarily engaged in Mali and the Sahel, pleads for the adoption of European sanctions in the wake of the ECOWAS, said Sunday the spokesperson for French diplomacy.