MALI
MALI – ECOWAS decides to sanction the country
Meeting on 9 January 2022 in Accra, Ghana, ECOWAS Heads of State issued a number of sanctions against Mali, in particular because of the failure to respect the duration of the transition since the overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. The transitional government of General Assimi Goïta intends to extend the duration of the transition while the presidential elections are scheduled for 27 February 2022. Ze-Africanews gives you the decisions taken at the end of the meeting of the Heads of State of ECOWAS.
At the end of the ACCRA meeting, ECOWAS Heads of State decided on sanctions, the contents of which are as follows:
These additional sanctions include:
a) Closure of land and air borders between ECOWAS countries and Mali;
b) Suspension of all commercial transactions between ECOWAS countries and
Mali, with the exception of essential consumer goods; pharmaceuticals; medical supplies and equipment, including COVID-19 control equipment; petroleum products and electricity;
c) Freezing of the assets of the Republic of Mali in ECOWAS Central and Commercial Banks;
d) Mali’s suspension of all financial assistance from ECOWAS financial institutions (BIDC and BOAD).
These sanctions will be applied immediately and will remain in force. The sanctions will be progressively lifted only after the finalisation of an acceptable and agreed timetable and the monitoring of satisfactory progress in the implementation of the timetable for the elections.
9. Moreover, given the potentially destabilizing impact on Mali and the region created by this transition in Mali, the Authority decides to immediately activate the Standby Force of ECOWAS, which must be ready for any eventuality.
10. The Conference calls on the African Union, the United Nations and other partners to support the process of implementing these sanctions and to continue to support an acceptable political transition.
11. Despite the denial of the Malian transitional government, the Authority remains deeply concerned by the consistent report on the deployment of private security agents in Mali with its potentially destabilizing impact on the West African region. The Authority notes that this situation is closely linked to the stalled political transition in the country.
12. The Heads of State and Government express their deep gratitude to His Exc. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana and President of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, for her leadership in the success of the Summit.
Done at Accra, this 9 January 2022
MALI
MALI – Nigerian military leader’s first visit abroad to Bamako
The head of the military regime in Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani, landed on Thursday, November 23, 2023 in Bamako and is to meet his counterpart at the head of the Malian junta for his first international visit since the coup in Niamey, found a AFP correspondent.
Mali and Burkina, led by soldiers who came to power in coups in 2020 and 2022, had quickly shown their solidarity with the generals of Niamey after taking power in late July.
Together, they created a “Alliance of Sahel States” (AES) which provides mutual assistance in the event of an attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the three States and strengthened economic ties.
United against international pressure for a return to democratic regimes, the two military regimes are also united against the jihadists whose attacks are ravaging their country.
General Tiani is to stay a few hours in Bamako and meet the head of the Malian junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, for a “friendship and work” visit, according to the Malian presidency.
The duration of the transition in Niger is not yet known, but General Tiani announced shortly after taking power that it would not exceed three years. In Mali, the presidential election scheduled for early 2024 has been postponed indefinitely.
A statement issued on Thursday morning indicates that Bamako will host from 23 November to 1 December two ministerial meetings “with a view to identifying prospects for the operationalization of the AES”, including the drafting of texts, the establishment of the bodies and the procedures for its operation.
The first will bring together the Ministers of Economy and Trade on 25 November for economic development issues. The foreign ministers of the three countries will meet on 30 November for political and diplomatic matters.
These meetings will precede a meeting of defence ministers at a later date.
MALI
MALI – General El Hadj Ag Gamou appointed Governor of Kidal
In Mali, General El Hadj Ag Gamou was appointed Wednesday, November 22, 2023 governor of the Kidal region. One week after the capture of the city, stronghold of the rebels of the CSP (Permanent Strategic Framework), by the Malian army and its proxies of Wagner, the appointment of this military leader Tuareg faithful to the Malian State reveals a strategy of the Malian transitional authorities.
General El Hadj Ag Gamou does not like to appear in public, but he is well known to all Malians, especially in the north. In 2012, while Tuareg army cadres deserted one by one to join the independence rebellion, the one who was still a colonel was the only one to remain faithful to Bamako.
Two years later, Gamou created the Tuareg Imghad and Allies Self-Defence Group (Gatia), a northern armed group, signatory to the future 2015 peace agreement, within the pro-State Malian Platform.
Distrust of the transitional authorities
Two years ago, in December 2021, the transitional Malian authorities disembark him from his post as inspector general of the armed forces. At the time, the CSP is not a rebellion, this coalition still brings together all the armed groups signatory to the peace agreement and the game of General Gamou within it is considered troubled by the leaders of the Transition. But mistrust does not last: today, Bamako is counting on him to bring the inhabitants of Kidal back into the fold of the State.
General Gamou is not from Kidal, but he knows the city and the region well, where he served for a long time. Above all, it is Imghad, a Tuareg fraction considered as «vassal» of that of the Ifoghas, who assumes the traditional leadership in Kidal and from which the main rebel leaders originate. «He is the one who will be able to gather», judges a Malian security source. «He will reassure the Tuaregs», says a close friend of General Gamou.
MALI
MALI- Tuareg separatists deny the existence of a mass grave in Kidal
Tuareg separatists have denied the existence of a mass grave that the Malian army claimed to have discovered last week in Kidal (north), a rebel stronghold city recently taken over by the junta and its allies.
These “allegations”, “obviously fabricated”, are “a pure diversion obviously intended to mask the horrible massacres committed by the terrorist duo Wagner-FAMa (Malian armed forces),” the separatists said in a statement, Wednesday, November 22, 2023.
“In the Kidal region, no allegations even in the form of rumours have ever been reported by any source about human rights violations by CSP-PSD forces,” an alliance of armed groups, they continued.
They denounce “a clumsy maneuver to ignore all the massacres perpetrated” by the Malian armed forces and their allies of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, whose junta denies the presence.
The Malian army claimed to have discovered this mass grave on 16 November during security operations. This mass grave recalls the atrocities committed by terrorists without faith or law,” the army said, without further details.
After eight years of calm, hostilities resumed in August in northern Mali between regular forces and separatists.
The withdrawal of the UN Mission, pushed towards the exit by the junta in power, triggered a race for control of the territory, the central authorities demanding the return of the camps, the rebels opposing it.
The takeover in mid-November by the army of Kidal, bastion of the independence claim, is a symbolic success for the colonels who took power by force in 2020.
In the shadow of the fighting on the ground, the two sides also clash on social networks, including X (ex-Twitter), TikTok and Facebook, through support accounts, many of which have been created recently, against a background of misinformation.
“Each side gives its version of what is happening on the ground and discredits that of the opponent it presents as propaganda,” Seidik Abba, a Nigerian journalist and political analyst specializing in the Sahel, told AFP recently.
The ruling junta broke the historic military partnership with France and its European allies to turn to Russia and urged the UN mission to leave.
After the departure of French troops from the Gossi base in central Mali, the Malian army also announced that it had discovered “a mass grave” in 2022. The French army had immediately denounced a manipulation, and broadcast drone images showing, according to it, Russian mercenaries burying bodies a few days earlier.
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