ECOWAS mediator in Mali, Goodluck Jonathan, expected in Bamako on Tuesday
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The mediator of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Mali and former Nigerian president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, is expected this Tuesday in Bamako, according to a statement from the ECOWAS Commission.
Jonathan, according to the statement, will be carrying a message from the heads of state and government of the sub-regional organisation to the president of the transition in Mali, Col. Assimi Goita.
According to the Commission, Jonathan will be accompanied by the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean Claude Kassi Brou.
It said the visit is part of "the implementation of the latest recommendations of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS on Mali.
Jonathan's visit follows several other missions to monitor the situation in Mali, suspended from all ECOWAS bodies since the coup that overthrew the former president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, on 18 August 2020.
Recently, the sub-regional organisation, which recommended to the transitional authorities the organisation of general elections on 27 February, banned members of the Transitional Council (CNT), a legislative body, and members of the Malian government, with the exception of the transitional president and the foreign minister, from visiting the ECOWAS region, and froze their assets.
The European Union also toed the ECOWAS line of action on Mali.
The Malian transitional authorities had hinted that the elections could not take place on 27 February, while referring to the insecurity that persists in Mali, indicating that a new timetable for the elections will be announced after the National Refoundation Conferences (ANR) that are currently being held in the country. The conferences will end on 30 December.
These meetings should help to lay the foundations for a new Mali (Mali-koura) with the establishment of a new institutional framework for the country, after years of political, social and security crisis.
-0- PANA GT/IS/SOC/BBA/VAO 20Dec2021
