AfDB, World Bank halt development aid to Guinea Bissau
-As ECOWAS condemns junta “illegal initiative”
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank have joined the AU and ECOWAS in condemning last week’s military coup in Guinea-Bissau and they have suspended development operations.
But in a statement received by WADR on Thursday, the AfDB and the World Bank said they will only continue emergency assistance.
The two financial institutions have called for a speedy resolution of the current crisis and calling the restoration of constitutional government, in order to preserve the development gains Guinea Bissau and its people have made.
They said Guinea Bissau has made notable economic progress over the last three years, by strengthening its economic and democratic governance, and successfully organized the first round of presidential elections after President Malam Bacai Sanha’s death last January.
The AfDB and the World Bank say they will continue to closely monitor the situation in Guinea Bissau.
At the same time, the ECOWAS Commission has described as an “illegal initiative” the move by Guinea Bissau’s military junta to set up a National Transitional Council.
In a statement issued Thursday evening, ECOWAS expressed surprise at the announcement “particularly after the junta had given a written undertaking, following its meeting with a high-level ECOWAS delegation in Bissau on 16 April 2012, to step aside to pave the way for the immediate return to constitutional normality with the facilitation of ECOWAS.”
The sub-regional bloc has announced that an emergency summit of the sub-regional bloc next week.
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