News
Regional bloc ECOWAS seeks to stabilize Mali
West Africa leaders meet in Burkina Faso on Saturday with civil leaders from Mali amid moves to create a government of national unity to tackle a crisis in the north where Islamists have enforced sharia law.
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, a mediator for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), will preside over the talks in Ouagadougou with six other regional leaders but with Mali’s leaders notable by their absence.
The interim president of Mali, Dioncounda Traore has been receiving medical care since being attacked in his office in May and will not be attending.
An official in the national assembly of Mali, said Thursday that Traore’s decision not to attend the Ouagadougou talks had less to do with his condition than with perceptions in his home country, where he has not returned since the incident.
Renegade soldiers toppled the elected president on March 22 but, under intense regional pressure from ECOWAS, later agreed to hand power back to a civilian administration.
Traore was attacked by a group of people backing the coup.
There was no reason given for the absence of Prime Minister Cheikh Modibo Diarra, though his relations with ECOWAS have been strained as the regional grouping looks for a more “inclusive” government in Mali.
