Pan-African Council of Traditional and Customary Authorities to mediate between Mali and ECOWAS
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - A delegation of the Pan-African Council of Traditional and Customary Authorities (CPATC) is in Mali as part of the search for common ground between Mali and the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS.
It is led by His Highness Dada Awiyan Kokpon Houdegbe of Benin, who has been in Mali since Sunday and was received Monday in audience by the president of the Transition in Mali, Colonel Assimi Goita, an official source told PANA here Tuesday.
The sub-regional organization is threatening Mali with new sanctions if the transitional authorities fail to organize general elections next February.
Targeted sanctions have recently been taken by ECOWAS against many Malian personalities due to the insecurity in more than 70 per cent of the country.
In view of the institutional crisis, the transitional authorities have decided that elections cannot be held at this time and that they will give a new timetable before 31 January 2022.
This timetable will be decided following the National Refoundation Conferences (ANR) currently being held in the country and which will end on 30 December.
These customary and traditional authorities came to listen to the Malian authorities and all the stakeholders so that the will of the Malian people is taken into account in decisions concerning them.
After the meeting with the delegation and a tête-à-tête between the head of state and the said authorities, Prince Théophile Tatsitsa Gha, in charge of the Pan-African Council's Mission for Cooperation and Peace and coordinator of the permanent technical secretariat, explained to the press that his organization had been informed that there was a meeting of ECOWAS which could impose new sanctions on the State of Mali.
He said members of the Danbe-Ton of Mali had invited their peers of the council to intervene to establish a dialogue with the heads of state of the sub-regional organization to resolve issues so that Mali does not suffer additional sanctions.
According to Prince Gha, the country is already under the weight of insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic. For him, the ECOWAS sanctions penalize the people of Mali.
This is why it was important for traditional leaders to intervene with the heads of state of this organization to calm the situation, and for the national consultations underway in Mali to produce results.
He revealed that the president of the Pan-African Council sent a dispatch to the Ghanaian head of state, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is also the current president of ECOWAS, to express the concerns of the traditional authorities and those of the people of Mali, while stressing that Colonel Goïta is receptive to this approach of dialogue which draws on Malian traditions.
"We have not come only to listen to the members of the government," said Prince Gha, announcing that from Tuesday, consultations would begin with political leaders, civil society and religious organizations.
The meeting took place in the presence of the Malian Minister of Handicrafts, Culture, Hotel Industry and Tourism, Andogoly Guindo, and the Minister of Religious Affairs, Worship and Customs, Mamadou Koné.
Previously, the delegation of the Pan-African Council of Traditional and Customary Authorities had been received by the Malian prime minister, Choguel Kokalla Maïga, and the founding families of Bamako.
-0- PANA GT/JSG/SOC/BBA 21Dec2021
