Panafrican News Agency

Ghana to host ECOWAS Consultative meeting on Mali

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana will on Tuesday host an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Consultative Meeting on Mali’s political crisis, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said on Sunday.

He said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who assumed the rotational chairmanship of ECOWAS last Monday in Niamey, Niger, will be joined by his colleagues as well as mediators on the Mali situation.

He said the Accra meeting will form part of several efforts to resolve Mali's political crisis.

Ghana's Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayokor Botchwey, condemned the political impasse in Mali and said the meeting was necessary to address the security threat and challenges confronting the West Africa sub-region.

“The political crisis in Mali poses a major threat to the sub-region if not dealt with appropriately. Vast territory without effective governance and operations of several splinter terrorist groups within the country pose a serious deterioration and security threat to the region,” she said.

ECOWAS leaders at their meeting in Niamey last Monday gave the National Committee for the People’s Salvation (CNSP) junta, which ousted Malian President President Ibrahim Boubacar Kéita on 18 August, a 12-month transition deadline.

Meanwhile, the CNSP ended a three-day national consultation on the transition on Saturday with the adoption of a Transition Charter and roadmap under which Mali will have a transition government for 18 months.

The 500 participants recommended the president of the transition government could either be a civilian or military officer.

It said the transition government would have a vice-president, a maximum of 25 ministers, a council which will be the legislative body made up of 121 members from the defence and security forces and all sectors in the country.

However, the main opposition movement, whose persistent demonstrations against President Kéita triggered the coup, has dissociated itself from the final Transition Charter saying the conclusions do not reflect the views and decisions of the people.

The 5 June Movement–Rally of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP), said the final document produced at the end the meeting particularly does not recognise its role and the martyrs of the fight for the Malian people for change.

The charter does not also take into consideration the majority view for the transition to be chaired by a civilian and also the choice of a civilian Prime Minister.

In a communiqué issued on Saturday, the M5-RFP denounced the inclusion of points to the Charter which were never the object of debates, particularly the prerogatives of the transition vice-president, the composition and method of appointment of the transition President and the mode of selecting the members of the National Transitional Committee.

M5-RFP condemned the unilateral decision that includes several points of the document which were neither discussed nor agreed and denounced the intimidation, anti-democratic and unfair practice of another era against which the fight for change was launched.   

"The desire to grab and confiscate power for the benefit of the National Committee for the People’s Salvation (CNSP), the junta which seized power last 18 August, cannot justify the methods used, which weaken the transition process," said the communiqué.

-0- PANA MA 13Sept2020