Mediation efforts by five West African presidents ended in July without a deal on how to resolve the West African nation’s political crisis. Several months of protests calling for the president to step down were unheeded.
This week, coup soldiers deposed the government of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and set up what they call the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), made up of five military officers led by Colonel Assimi Goita as Chairman.
West
African leaders held a virtual emergency summit Thursday to condemn the coup in
landlocked Mali, which has seen growing
instability since 2012 as a result of insurgent activities that spread to neighbouring
Burkina Faso and Niger.
Barrow said the summit needed to “act fast and tactfully” to diffuse the tension.
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| Photo taken from Gambia State House Facebook Page |
ECOWAS and its partner, the EU, are worried that the coup adds to further instability in the region.
“A politically stable Mali is paramount and crucial to the stability of the sub-region,” Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, said Thursday as the summit on Mali kicks off.
Despite President Keita winning elections in 2013 and 2018, dissatisfaction among the citizens kept escalating.
In his seven years of leadership, Keita's critics condemned his approach in fighting against religious extremists with links to Al-Qaida and the Islamic State.
There were also alleged corrupt acts being linked to his administration and his political party.
- An audiovisual version of this story first appeared on Eye Africa TV on August 20, 2020 on The World Today (TWT) News Broadcast.
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