Political Instability in West Africa Reveals Contagious Nature of Mali's Coup - ECOWAS
Recent political developments in Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso have demonstrated that Mali's military coup was contagious for western Africa, the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd February, 2022) Recent political developments in Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso have demonstrated that Mali's military coup was contagious for western Africa, the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo said on Thursday.
"I want to thank you for your presence in this extraordinary summit which will focus on the emerging threats in our region that stem from the military interference in Mali, and its contagious influence in Guinea and Burkina Faso. Fortunately, the attempt two days ago to overthrow the democratically elected government of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau by a military coup, failed," Akufo-Addo said at the ECOWAS extraordinary summit.
Akufo-Addo also urged the summit's participants to address the danger collectively and decisively before it devastates the whole region.
On February 1, a group of people in civilian clothes, armed with machine guns and grenade launchers, attacked the government building of Guinea-Bissau in the capital of the country, Bissau, where a meeting of the Council of Ministers was being held.
At least six people were killed in the armed attack.
A week prior to that, Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and parliamentary leader Allassane Bala Sakande, his potential successor, were captured by mutinying soldiers in Ouagadougou.
Mali has seen two military coups in the last two years, in August of 2020 and in May of 2021. The Military Council, led by Vice President Assimi Goita, took over the country and announced presidential and parliamentary elections next year. Goita was declared president of the transitional period by the country's constitutional court. In November, 2021, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said that the general election, which was supposed to end the transition period, will have to be postponed from February 2022 to 2025 due to the volatile security situation.