After his meeting with Senegalese President Macky Sall, who holds the rotating presidency of the African Union, Guterres said: “We agreed on the importance of continuing dialogue with the de facto authorities (in these) three countries, with the aim of consolidating the return to the constitutional order as soon as possible.”
West Africa witnessed successive military coups in Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), Guinea (September 2021) and Burkina Faso (January 2022).
The Economic Community of West African States suspended the membership of the three countries in all its bodies, and in January imposed severe sanctions on Mali, after the Bamako authorities refused to speed up the restoration of civilian rule, in parallel with Conakry and Ouagadougou threatening the same fate if they did not set a “reasonable” deadline for the transitional period.
But the military rulers in Burkina and Guinea announced this week that they will not meet the demands of the West African group.
Likewise, the Malian Military Council continues to challenge the group after it announced on April 21 the launch of a transitional “process” that would last “two years”, while West African countries are calling for elections within a maximum period of sixteen months.
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