ECOWAS holds virtual session on Mali
The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, on Thursday opened a virtual meeting to deliberate further on the political crisis rocking Mali.
President Muhammadu Buhari is participating in the virtual Extraordinary Session of the Economic Community of West Africa States’ (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government.
The session, which is being held through video conference, was convened following the military coup d’etat in the Republic of Mali on Tuesday.
Also attending the meeting with President Buhari from Abuja are the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada; Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (Rtd); National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd); the Director General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufa’i; and the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, among others.
Rebel forces, on Tuesday afternoon, arrested President Ibrahim Keita of Mali and his Prime Minister, Boubou Cisse, and drove the pair to a military base on the outskirts of Bamako, which they had seized that morning.
Keita later announced early Wednesday that he had resigned to avert “bloodshed.”
ECOWAS, in a swift reaction to the coup, condemned the action of the military junta and vowed stiff sanctions against Mali, among which it said, would be closure of land and air borders of West African neighbours against the country.
