An ECOWAS delegation met on Wednesday with Mali’s Prime Minister, in the second of a two-day visit by the members of the West African bloc to Bamako.
The meeting was attended by ECOWAS mediator Goodluck Jonathan, Malian Prime Minister Choguel Maiga, and ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Brou Kassi.
Kassi informed media that Maiga had reiterated the assurances made by the transitional government’s president, Colonel Assimi Goita, on Tuesday.
Maiga said that the new administration will provide the actions to be taken within six weeks, and that Mali’s allies “would hold our hand as they have always done when our nation has gone through a’storm.'”
“In a few weeks we will come back to the Malians and then to the international community, to indicate the firm determination to go through with the transition, which should be a successful transition, after having resolved or addressed all the issues and difficulties that were at the root of the change that we have experienced,” he said.
Colonel Goita, who overthrew Mali’s democratically elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keta, in August 2020, later consented to a transitional administration headed by a civilian president and prime minister.
Goita deposed the civilian leaders two weeks ago following a cabinet reshuffle that excluded two junta loyalists without consulting him.
ECOWAS, the West African regional bloc, has backed mediation discussions in Mali.
The African Union (AU) has banned the country’s membership, and France has temporarily paused joint military operations with Malian forces in order to put pressure on Goita to stand down following his second coup in nine months.
Mali’s constitutional court recently confirmed Goita as interim president, and he was sworn in as the transitional government’s president on Monday.
When asked if ECOWAS would remove or maintain Mali’s suspension from the organization, Kassi said that the decision must be made by the Presidents of the bloc’s member nations.
According to Kassi, the organization has demanded the release of the now-former president and prime minister, who were imprisoned by the military in May.
“We have insisted on allowing them (former president and prime minister) to be free again. I think we were given assurances and that has been done. They are now at home. And so, we think there is no problem at that level.“
The bloc and the AU have made it plain that the head of the transitional government, the vice president, and the prime minister should not run in the next presidential election, which is scheduled for February of next year.
