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ECOWAS’s move comes after Mali’s transitional leaders said they would not be able to hold elections in time.
West Africa’s main political and economic bloc has imposed sanctions on Mali’s transition leaders after it informed the organization that presidential and legislative elections could not be held in February.
Mali’s interim government, which came to power after the army ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, promised the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that it would oversee the 18-month transition back to democracy ending in elections on 27 February 2022. .
But he has made only mere progress on the way to organizing the vote and has repeatedly suggested that it could be delayed, in part due to the constant uprising of armed groups.
Parts of the nation’s vast population of 19 million are out of government control as a result of an armed uprising that erupted in the north in 2012 before spreading to the center of the country, as well as nearby Burkina Faso and Niger.
ECOWAS said on Sunday after a summit in Ghana that it had been informed by the interim authorities that it was “unable to meet the February 2022 transition deadline”.
The penalty includes travel bans and asset freezes for all members of the transitional authority, as well as some family members, the note said ECOWAS will consider additional penalties in December unless it is advanced.
ECOWAS imposed sanctions for the first time, with borders closed, immediately after last year’s coup, but less than two months later the coup leaders lifted them after accepting an 18-month transition.
Since then, the leader of the initial coup, Colonel Assimi Goita, staged a second coup in May, this time removing the interim president and taking over the same post.
Last month, the West African country expelled accusing the regional envoy of the regional bloc in Bamako of “actions incompatible with his status”.
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