Leaders of West African regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), once again gathered in Accra, Ghana, with the main agenda of the summit being the ongoing efforts to resolve political crises in the coup-hit countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.
The meeting, which was yet another in a series of summits by leaders of the bloc have failed to produce positive results with the bloc at a cross roads on how to resolve the impasse and return the nations to democratic rules despite various sanctions placed on them.
A similar summit last month had put on hold further economic and financial sanctions on the three nations though they were suspended following the military coups that truncated civilian rules while the junta leaders have also been non committal in charting a path for a quick return to civil regimes.
So far, only the Malian junta has announced a transition roadmap which includes a scheduled presidential election for February 2024 and a March 2023 constitutional referendum, but ECOWAS has kicked against the transition period and it remains to be seen whether the leaders in Accra will accept the proposal.
The Guinean and Burkina Faso juntas also proposed three-year transition periods which ECOWAS rejected outright, arguing that the time frame for an elections was too long.
ECOWAS had earlier in January sanctioned Mali by shutting down the country’s land and air borders which dealt a huge blow on commercial activities in the impoverished country and almost crippled its economy.
The spiralling wave of military coups in the West African region started in August 2020 in Mali when Col. Assimi Goita, led other mutinous to overthrow President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.
Nine months later, Goita staged a second coup where he sacked the country’s civilian transitional leader, Bah Ndaw and assumed the presidency himself.
Seemingly inspired by Malian coup, the head of the Guinean Special Forces, Col Mamady Doumbouya, struck in September 2021 and overthrew President Alpha Condé, and made himself the head of the interim government.
It was the turn of Burkina Faso when in January 2022, Lt Col Paul-Henri Damiba led other soldiers to overthrow the democratically elected President Roch Marc Christian Kabore whom he arrested and placed under house arrest for many months.
But how far will the ECOWAS summit go with resolving the political deadlock in the three nations remains to be seen.