In an extraordinary ECOWAS summit held on September 22nd in New York, the leaders of West African states decided to take "progressive sanctions" against the military junta in Guinea. The main is the "inflexibility" of the military for a date for the return of civilians to power. At the initiative of the Bissau-Guinean presidency, authorities also decided to send a mission to Bamako to meet the Malian authorities.
The meeting ended with a brief declaration made by the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray: Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea are suspended from the organization.
According to him, the extraordinary summit's conclusion lies in two points. First are sanctions against Guinea. "It was decided to take progressive sanctions on individuals and against the Guinean junta. The current president of ECOWAS and the president of the ECOWAS commission will draw up a list of people to be sanctioned and, gradually, apply these sanctions."
Secondly, the authorities repeated: "Coups are unacceptable in the space of ECOWAS," said Omar Alieu Touray. He added that heads of state always demanded an "acceptable" transition period, which is not the case now.
"ECOWAS is firmly against coups d'etat, they are not acceptable," summarizes Omar Alieu Touray, president of the organization's Commission on the sanctions against Conakry
As for Mali, a diplomatic approach was agreed on, with a "high-level mission" made up of the Togolese, Senegalese and Ghanaian presidents to go to Bamako "very soon." Also, all the Heads of State in the sub-region, specified Omar Alie Touray, have agreed to demand an "immediate and unconditional" release of the 46 Ivorian soldiers detained in the country since July 10th.
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