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Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), yesterday, said it will close its borders with Mali and impose sweeping economic sanctions as a response to the delay in holding promised elections by the military after a 2020 coup.
This was part of the resolution after an extraordinary summit of leaders of the 15-member ECOWAS in Accra, the Ghanaian capital held to discuss a proposal from Mali’s transitional authorities to hold elections in December 2025 instead of next month as originally agreed.
In the communique, ECOWAS said it found the proposed timetable for a transition totally unacceptable.
It said the timetable “simply means that an illegitimate military transition government will take the Malian people hostage.”
ECOWAS said it had agreed to impose additional sanctions on Mali with immediate effect, among them, the closure of members’ land and air borders, suspension of non-essential financial transactions, and the freezing of Malian state assets in ECOWAS central and commercial banks.
