News
ECOWAS mediators wrap up successful Mali mission
West African mediators wrapped up their mission to Mali on Monday, after securing their choice for transition president by offering the leader of a March coup the status of former head of state.
“We are all leaving, with the feeling that we have accomplished our mission” set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Ivory Coast Minister of African Integration Adama Bictogo told AFP.
“We wanted to bring a modest contribution to peace, but the merit goes to the citizens of Mali themselves. The framework of the transition has been defined,” he added.
After weeks of laborious negotiations between ECOWAS and the junta, which often ended in stalemate, the parties on Sunday agreed that Mali coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo would step down with all the privileges owed to a former president.
One of west Africa’s most stable democracies, Mali was plunged into crisis when Sanogo on March 22 led a band of low-ranking soldiers to oust Amadou Toumani Toure’s government.
The soldiers claimed that the government was incompetent in handling a Tuareg rebellion in the northern desert.
However the coup allowed the Tuaregs and a motley group of armed Islamists and criminal bands to seize the northern half of the country, an area larger than France.
