What is ECOWAS and why have 3 coup-hit nations quit the West Africa bloc?
Monthslong tension between three coup-hit countries in West Africa and the regional bloc known as ECOWAS boiled over when the nations announced their immediate withdrawal from the bloc, accusing it of a lack of support and โinhumaneโ coup-related sanctions.
UN peacekeeping chief welcomes strong support for its far-flung operations despite `headwinds'
The United Nations peacekeeping chief says he was very satisfied with the strong support of many countries for its far-flung operations at a recent ministerial meeting, despite โheadwinds and challenges and problems.โ.
A deadline arrives for Niger's junta to reinstate the president. Citizens cheer and fear what's next
The deadline has arrived for Nigerโs military junta to reinstate the countryโs ousted president, but the West Africa regional bloc that has threatened a military intervention faces prominent appeals to pursue more peaceful means.
West Africa defense chiefs finalize Niger intervention plan as junta negotiations deadlock
Defense chiefs from West African nations finalized an intervention plan and urged militaries to ready resources after negotiations deadlocked with Nigerโs military junta, which says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler.
France, West Africa step up counterterrorism efforts
Macron joined by video from Paris a summit organized in N'Djamena, Chad with the leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania. It is made up of soldiers from Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania who operate in cooperation with French troops. โThis was unexpected a year ago,โ Armand Joseph Kabore, director of Labo Citoyennetes, a think tank in Burkina Faso told The Associated Press. โ(The G5 Sahel) force has to be more present, more of a deterrent, and capable of efficiently opposing forces of evil,โ he said. ___Mednick reported from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
French minister insists troops didn't bomb Mali wedding fete
French soldiers stand in an honour guard on Thursday Jan.7, 2021 as the hearse convoy of late French forces soldiers rides on the Alexandre III bridge in central Paris. Three other French soldiers died just five days earlier in similar circumstances . The airstrike was part of a larger operation by French troops aimed at fighting Islamist extremists in Africaโs Sahel region. Parly spoke after five French troops were killed last week in two separate attacks involving improvised explosive devices. ___This story has been corrected to show that five French troops were killed last week, not six.
France seeks strategy change to reduce troops in West Africa
French soldiers stand in an honour guard on Thursday Jan.7, 2021 as the hearse convoy of late French forces soldiers rides on the Alexandre III bridge in central Paris. French troops have been present in Mali since 2013 when they intervened to force Islamic extremist rebels from power. โFrench troops could not stay forever...so many and (with) such mixed results. A top official at the French presidency said the death of French soldiers will not in itself be the basis for a strategy change. The French military operation enjoys broad support at home.
Donors pledge $1.7 billion for Burkina Faso, Mail and Niger
File-This June 4, 2020, file photo shows Women and children walk in a makeshift site for displaced people in Kongoussi, Burkina Faso. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the funds will help some 10 million people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger for the remainder of this year and through next year with nutrition, food, health services, water and sanitation, shelter, education, protection and support to survivors of gender-based violence. Both Guterres and Lowcock appealed for $2.4 billion to cover the remaining months of 2020 and 2021. U.N. spokesman Dujarric said donors pledged $985 million for this year and $704 million for 2021 and beyond. The United States was next pledging $274.8 million followed by Denmark with $183.1 million, the European Union with $122.8 million and Germany with $118.2 million.
UN hopes meeting will raise $1 billion for key Sahel nations
Compared to the average of the last five years, acute food insecurity has increased by a staggering 514% in Burkina Faso, 130% in Mali and 144% in Niger, his agency said. โWhat I hope is through this conference, for these three countries, weโll get up to about a billion dollars for 2020,โ Lowcock said. โThat will certainly enable us to keep the situation under control and contain the worst difficulties. He called for more girls to go to school and stay there, a reduction in infant and maternal mortality, and improvements in clean water availability. โSo you donโt get to choose where you have to start the journey, but you do have to take the first steps.โ
The Latest: Mali notable in its absence from UN meeting
As late as last week, the United Nations still listed the deposed president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, as an upcoming speaker. But the final countries addressed the U.N. gathering on Tuesday afternoon with no word from Mali. Before this latest coup, extremists were moving south into more densely populated areas, adding to the frustrations that fed massive protests in the weeks ahead of the coup. He delivered a prerecorded address Tuesday to the U.N. General Assemblyโs annual meeting of global leaders, being held virtually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Emirati foreign minister also warned against what he said were โthe expansionist ambitions of some countries in the region."
Mali's junta leader to be veep of transitional government
(ORTM TV via AP)BAMAKO โ The head of Maliโs military junta said Monday he will serve as the vice president in a transitional government that is supposed to bring about a return to democracy, more than a month after he led a coup to overthrow the president. The 15-nation West African region bloc known as ECOWAS had demanded that the president and prime minister in any transitional government must be civilians, not from the military junta. It was not immediately clear whether they would accept Goita as vice president as he would still hold a prominent role in government. A president and vice president were named Monday, but there was no mention of a prime minister. However, divisions between the opposition and the junta have begun to deepen, with the opposition condemning any attempt to have a military leader in the transitional government.
West African leaders urge civilian rule in Mali within days
People hold a banner showing Col. Assimi Goita, leader of the junta which is now running Mali and calls itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, outside a conference in Bamako, Mali, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020. Leaders of Mali's military junta who deposed the West African country's president last month are meeting with political parties and civil society groups to outline a transition to a civilian government and, ultimately, elections.
West African leaders urge civilian rule in Mali within days
(AP Photo)ABURI โ West African leaders have emphasized that Maliโs junta should nominate civilian transitional leaders within days to lead the nation toward elections, Ghanaโs president said following a regional summit. Six leaders from the West African regional economic bloc, ECOWAS, met with Mali's junta Tuesday in Ghana, whose president now serves as the blocโs new chairman. They agreed the junta must install a civilian president and vice president. ECOWAS insisted that the transitional leaders must be civilians, rejecting the juntaโs suggestion that the leaders could come from the military. Those sanctions could be lifted once a transitional civilian government is in place, it said in its Tuesday statement.
Mali's former president Moussa Traore dies at 83
BAMAKO โ Maliโs former president Moussa Traore, who ruled the West Africa nation for more than 22 years, has died at age 83, according to his son Idrissa Traore. Traore seized power in a military coup in 1968, eight years after Mali gained independence from France, and amid growing discontent with then-president Modibo Keita, the country's first president. Traore and other officers set up the Military Committee for National Liberation, abolished the constitution and established a regime. Traore ruled the country as its military leader until 1979 when he installed himself as civilian president of a one-party state. On Tuesday, the military junta currently ruling Mali met with a group of West African leaders in Ghana to outline a transition to civilian rule.
Mali opposition opposes junta proposal on transition period
(AP Photo)BAMAKO โ Divisions deepened between Mali's military coup leaders and the country's political opposition movement on Sunday after the ruling junta announced a plan that would allow a military leader to oversee an 18-month transitional period. The junta proposed that the transition be led by either a military or civilian leader, which leaves open the possibility that the military officers who seized power could remain at the helm for another 18 months until elections are organized. The 15-nation West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS has warned that by Tuesday the junta must designate a civilian leader to head a one-year transition period or else the country could face further sanctions. ECOWAS has already stopped financial transfers into the country and has closed its borders with Mali. Junta leader Col. Assimi Goita said he hoped for the support of the international community after the military leaders agreed to reduce the transition period to 18 months after initially proposing three years.
Group of French-speaking countries suspends Mali after coup
PARIS Mali has been suspended from a global body of French-speaking countries after a military junta overthrew the West African country's democratically elected president. The permanent council of the International Organization of Francophonie decided on the suspension after holding an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Mali. The decision by the French-speaking body follows the suspension of Mali from the 15-nation West African regional bloc ECOWAS. It held unsuccessful talks with the military junta in an attempt to get it to agree to immediately return Mali to civilian rule. While the international community has been pressing for a quick return to civilian rule, the military junta now running Mali is seeking to prolong its rule until 2023.
Mali junta insists president did not resign under duress
(AP Photo)BAMAKO The military junta now in charge of Mali insisted Monday that former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had resigned of his own free will and was not overthrown, as the officers now running the country try to prolong their rule until 2023. The junta's spokesman, Ismael Wague, later said that no timeline had been established for elections to return to the country to civilian rule. President Keita told us that he has resigned, that he was not forced to do so and that he does not want to return," said former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday. The ECOWAS mediators initially had called for Keita to be reinstalled as president, but that prospect has become unlikely amid an outpouring of public support in Mali for the coup d'etat. He offered concessions and regional mediators intervened, but his opponents made it clear they would accept nothing short of his departure.
Thousands in Mali's capital demand that president step down
Demonstrators hold a placard in French reading "This regime is a coronavirus for Mali" as they protest in the capital Bamako, Mali Friday, June 5, 2020. Thousands of people demonstrated in Mali's capital on Friday to demand the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the release of opposition leader Soumaila Ciss, and denounce corruption, arbitrary arrests and the organisation of April's legislative elections. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)BAMAKO BAMAKO, MaliThousands of people demonstrated in Mali's capital on Friday to demand the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. They also called for the release of opposition leader Soumaila Ciss, who was kidnapped by armed men in March while campaigning for the elections. Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the president of a decade.