ECOWAS heads of state hold special summit on Mali today
Last Thursday’s military coup in Mali will be the main agenda issue of an extraordinary summit of the sub-regional bloc, ECOWAS on Tuesday in Ivory Coast main city, Abidjan.
ECOWAS Chairman, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara is convening the summit.
The sub-regional meeting comes in the wake of reports from Bamako that the country's detained Prime Minister and several other ministers in the ousted government were on hunger strike. One of the officials told the French news agency, AFP that their rights were being violated by the junta who are detaining them in a military barracks.
Ivorian Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan said the heads of state are expected to discuss how to respond to the crisis in that country..
“For a country that has been a model of democracy for almost twenty years, the situation in Mali is very difficult. Since we are all brothers in the ECOWAS organization, we will all be gathering to find a solution to the ongoing crisis in Mali.
That is why Alassane Ouattara, the President of the Ivory Coast and current chairman of ECOWAS is convening the extraordinary summit on this issue,” Duncan told reporters in Abidajn.
The Ivorian Foreign Minister however said the people of the sub-region have to wait for the outcome of Tuesday’s summit.
“The Heads of State will work on these issues, in order to restore true peace and democracy to the sub region. You know the ECOWAS sub-region has 300 million inhabitants and 15 member countries. If ECOWAS was a single country, then it could have been the 25th power in the world. So, we have to bring all these countries back on the road to peace and development,” the Ivorian Foreign Minister added.
Tweet
