Leaders of countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have just slammed fresh sanctions against military juntas in Mali and Guinea, serving a strong notice that coups were no longer tolerated in the sub-region. They also called on both countries to diligently commit to schedules outlined for restoration of democracy or risk further sanctions.
Rising from an extraordinary summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government in ECOWAS on November 7, in Accra, Ghana, the leaders resolved to impose fresh sanctions with immediate effect against identified individuals and groups of persons, particularly the transition authorities and related institutions in the two countries. They said in a statement that the new measures included travel bans and asset freezes on members of the transition authorities and family members, adding that ECOWAS would consider additional sanctions by December if no progress is made towards democracy. The latest raft of measures is, perhaps, the bloc’s toughest response yet to military takeovers.
Mali’s interim government took power following the military’s overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, and had promised to oversee an 18-month transition that should culminate in elections on February 27, 2022. But the junta has since pedalled back, notifying ECOWAS of its inability to meet the transition deadline. Only last October, it expelled ECOWAS special envoy to Bamako, accusing him of “actions incompatible with his status.” Although the sub-regional body had imposed sanctions, including border closures, on the heels of last year’s coup, it lifted the sanctions barely two months later when the coup leaders agreed to the 18-month transition schedule.
In Guinea, Col. Mamady Doumbouya early in September led a coup to overthrow President Alpha Condé, marking the fourth time within 12 months that the frontiers of democracy were being rolled back in the sub-region. There had been two military takeovers in Mali, a failed coup attempt in Niger and extra-constitutional succession of slain President Idriss Déby of Chad by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby. Outside of West Africa, there was military seizure of power in Sudan on October 25, and arrest of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
Guinea’s Doumbouya promised a return to democracy but didn’t say when he would organise elections. ECOWAS leaders, at their extraordinary summit, appointed ace diplomat Mohamed Ibn Chambas as special envoy to engage with the transitional regime, while upholding Guinea’s suspension from all ECOWAS governing bodies as well as the travel ban and financial assets freeze imposed on junta officials and their family members until constitutional order gets restored in the country. Speaking on respective situations in Guinea and Mali, Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, said: “It appears from all indications that much progress has been made in Guinea, although we are still concerned that there ought to be much more clarity on transition. But Mali is a much more difficult situation, there is much concern because very little progress has been made.”
It is commendable that ECOWAS is taking a tough line against military adventurers in power. Osinbajo was quoted saying: “One of the important points that the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government make is that coups and coups d’état generally are just completely unacceptable, and that we cannot continue to have a situation where they are tolerated for the simple reason that in Africa, West Africa in particular, we’ve gone way beyond military coups as an answer to the question of change in political actors.” We are in total agreement with the Vice President on this score, and on his call that multilateral organs like the United Nations, African Union and European Union should rally behind ECOWAS in pressing sanctions against actors who choose not to follow the democratic path in changing governments and rather stage coups.
But the point must again be made that good governance must become a consuming passion of African leaders to foreclose excuses typically seized upon by military opportunists. In other words, tough aversion to coups is good, but diligent commitment to good governance is way off better.
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