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What next as Guinea, Burkina Faso juntas dare ECOWAS, miss April 25 deadline to announce transition plan?

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Today, 25th April 2022, marks the set deadline set by the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to the military junta in Guinea and Burkina Faso to announce specific plans to transition into civil governments.

None of the two countries have however indicated any concrete plan for transition, thus risking further sanctions by the regional body – ECOWAS.

Slamreportafrica reported last month that Burkina Faso’s ruling junta, the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR), had signed a charter setting a three-year transition period before the country held elections.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had expressed worry over the three-year transition period announced by the leader of the military junta in Burkina Faso, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

Leaders of the regional ECOWAS bloc last month told the juntas in Guinea and Burkina Faso they had until April 25 to explain how and when they would hand back power to civilians or face immediate sanctions.

Burkina Faso’s junta spokesman Lionel Bilgo said on Sunday evening that restoring peace and security remained a pre-requisite for constitutional rule.

“If we manage to do this in less than three years, we will organise these elections,” Bilgo told state television, calling on ECOWAS to be more sensitive to on-the-ground realities.

The story is similar in Guinea as the government spokesman, Ousmane Gaoual Diallo argued that “Guinea’s reality will prevail over all other imperatives.”

“We are going to evolve, taking into account the context… and specific situation of our country, towards exiting the transition.” Diallo told a radio station.

West Africa has been rocked by two coups in Mali, one in Guinea and one in Burkina Faso since August 2020.

ECOWAS is yet to give an official position on the defiance case of the two countries to meet the April 25 deadline.

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Ethiopia, Somalia agree to resolve Somaliland port conflict

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Ethiopia and Somalia agreed to cooperate in settling a disagreement over Addis Ababa’s proposal to construct a port in Somaliland. This breakaway area had attracted regional powers, posing a further threat to the stability of the Horn of Africa.

Following discussions facilitated by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, the leaders of the two nations said that they had reached an agreement to create business agreements that would provide landlocked Ethiopia “reliable, secure and sustainable access to and from the sea.”

The meeting was their first since Ethiopia announced in January that it would recognise the independence of Somaliland, a breakaway entity in northern Somalia, in exchange for leasing a port there.

The agreement was rejected by Mogadishu, which also threatened to drive out Ethiopian forces fighting Islamist terrorists in Somalia.

Somaliland, which has governed itself and had relative peace and stability since announcing its independence in 1991, is opposed by Somalia to international recognition.

Ethiopia and Somalia announced in a joint statement issued late Wednesday that they had agreed to begin technical talks by the end of February of next year and to wrap them up in four months.

“This joint declaration focuses on the future, not the past,” Erdogan said at a press conference in Ankara afterwards.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed praised Turkish attempts to settle the conflict, while Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared he was prepared to cooperate with Ethiopia.

The dispute has brought Somalia closer to Eritrea, another of Ethiopia’s longstanding enemies, and Egypt, which has been at odds with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s development of a massive hydro project on the Nile River.

Ethiopia and Somalia are close partners of Turkey, which provides development aid and security force training to Somalia in exchange for a foothold on a vital international shipping route.

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Officials report fight between Somalia’s Jubbaland region, central govt

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After Jubbaland staged an election against the advice of the Mogadishu administration, officials claimed on Wednesday that fighting had broken out between the federal government and the semi-autonomous Jubbaland region of Somalia.

“This morning, federal forces from Mogadishu in Ras Kamboni, using drones, attacked Jubbaland forces,” Adan Ahmed Haji, assistant security minister of Jubbaland, told a press conference in Jubbaland’s capital Kismayu.

Response requests were not immediately answered by Interior Minister Yusuf Ali or Information Minister Daud Aweis of the national administration.

Jubbaland, one of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous republics that borders Ethiopia and Kenya, elected regional president Ahmed Mohamed Islam Madobe to a third term in late November.

 

Jubbaland has the potential to be one of Somalia’s richest districts due to its location and natural resources, but for more than 20 years, violence has kept it permanently unsettled.

There are no explicit guidelines in the Somali constitution regarding the establishment of recently formed federal entities or their interactions with the national government.

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