Politics

Military Rule: ECOWAS lifts sanctions on Mali, accepts Burkina Faso’s junta plan but Guinea wasn’t lucky

Published

2 years ago

July 3, 2022

Report coming out of Accra, Ghana, venue of the ongoing summit of the leadership of regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS says the regional bloc has lifted economic and financial sanctions imposed on Mali.

The sanctions were lifted following Mali’s military rulers proposal of a 24-month transition to democracy and published a new electoral law.

The military junta led by Colonel Assimi Goita in June created a body charged with responsibility for writing a new Constitution. The government had through a decree read on state television said that Bamako will be returned to civil rule after twenty-four months.

ECOWAS had initially said it regrets the decision of Colonel Goita to extend the duration of the transition.

ECOWAS leaders also accepted a pledge from the junta that seized power in Burkina Faso in January to restore constitutional order in 24 months.

The regional bloc however rejected a 3-year transition proposed by coup leaders who seized power in Guinea in September. It requested that Guinea’s junta to propose a new timeline by the end of July or face economic sanctions.

Recall that having received “proposals” for a political transition, the junta in Guinea announced a 39 months transition period before the country returns to civilian rule.

The West African region has been rocked by two coups in Mali, one in Guinea and one in Burkina Faso since August 2020. The lifting of the sanctions is some sort of relief for the countries who cannot afford more economic restrains than the troubling cases of insurgency already caused them.

Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

10 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.