Published on: 04/12/2022 – 20:13
The 62nd Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ended on Sunday evening 4 December. The organization calls for the release of the 46 Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali before January 1, announces the creation of a regional force to fight terrorism and restore constitutional order.
With our special correspondent in Abuja, Serge Daniel
From the beginning of the meeting, the heads of state of the ECOWASor their representatives quietly retired to a Nigerian Presidency room for a full camera. They made the decision to bang their fists on the table and ask Mali before January 1, 2023: the release of the 46 Ivorian soldiers held in Bamako for more than four months failing to do so will result in sanctions, according to the commission. And according to our information, it is the Togolese President Faure GnassingbeMediator in the case who will travel to the Malian capital to get the message across.
According to our information, the first-instance investigations against the 46 soldiers have been completed at the judicial level and the files have been sent to the public prosecutor’s office since November 25th. But if the Ivorian soldiers are still being held in Bamako, it is because the Malian interim authorities want the two parties to commit at all costs.
After Abidjan called the conditions imposed by Mali unacceptable, he hinted that an official visit by Assimi Goïta could take place after the soldiers’ release. In November, the invitation of Ivorian Defense Minister Téné Binahima Ouattara to Bamako revived hopes that the files could be closed. But the visit was postponed.
In any case, the participants expressed their impatience with the duration of this affair. And Côte d’Ivoire has garnered significant support on the issue, hence the summit’s decision to call for the release of the 46 soldiers before next month.
#ECOWAS/Abuja Summit: 1- Asks Bko to release the 46 Ivorian soldiers before 1/1/2023, otherwise sanctions will be imposed. 2- Approval of a project to create an anti-terror and anti-coup force. 3- Transition assistance in Burkina, vigilance in Mali and inclusive dialogue in Guinea.
– Serge Daniel (@sergedanielinfo) December 4, 2022
return to constitutional order
The Malian, Guinean and Burkinabe crossings were other topics of conversation. With a very active foreign minister on the corridors, the Guinean government managed to sell the participants in the Abuja summit a transitional period of 24 months. The Conference of Heads of State called for an inclusive dialogue. If it cannot take place in Conakry, ECOWAS offers to host the meeting in another capital of the sub-region.
In Burkina Faso, the summit confirmed the report of the mediator, former Nigerien President Issoufou Mahamadou, who asked for great solidarity with that country. On the other hand, the sub-regional institution that takes care of the security and humanitarian situation will help the country.
The Malian transition is being watched under the magnifying glass, although progress has been made.
regional strength
A project to create a regional ECOWAS force was adopted. This force, whose outline is unknown, “will be an intervention force against terrorism and unconstitutional changes in the subregion,” Omar Alieu Touray, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, tells RFI.
For this force, the heads of state have chosen not to rely on voluntary funding because we have seen so far that voluntary funding never happens. We will examine how we can finance the troupe from our own resources.
Omar Alieu Touray, President of the ECOWAS Commission
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio, ECOWAS Commission Chairman Omar Alieu Touray, Federal Capital Territory Minister Mohammed Bello during the inauguration ceremony of the new ECOWAS Secretariat December 4, 2022 in Abuja, Nigeria , 2022. Portal – AFOLABI SOTUNDE