A delegation of Malian Women leaders under the Political Transition in the country has appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana’s President and Chairman of Economic Community of West African States to help lift sanctions on their country.
In a statement signed by Dr Diallo DeidaKattra, the leader of the delegation copied the Ghanaian Times said “the sanctions has serious consequences on the situation of Women and children in Mali, and strongly impacted by the security crisis and the effect of COVID 19 pandemic”.
“The Mission wishes to call on effective solidarity of ECOWAS leadership in mobilising and pooling special resources for Women’s economic empowerment both from the ECOWAS and all technical andfinancial partners of Mali.”
The group was in Ghana to undertake advocacy to win public support to end the crises in Mali to enable Malians, especially women and Children to regain their self-worth and dignity.
According to the delegation, while in Accra they participated in the ongoing ECOWAS efforts of mediation aimed at lifting the sanctions on Mali, as sub regional officials meet to prepare for the summit in July.
The delegation praised the Ghanaian President for his leadership in steering the affairs of ECOWAS and appealed to him to help ease the sanctions on Mali.
Those sanctions were imposed on Mali on January 9, 2022 following the political development in the country.
The ECOWAS and UEMOA both applied economic and diplomatic sanctions on Mali in January after the military junta proposed staying in power for up to five years.
This followed the seizure of power from the Malian President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, after months of civil unrest, by a military junta led by Colonel Assimi Goita in August 2020, and then installed an interim government led by civilians.
But in May 2021, Colonel Goita deposed those civilian leaders, in a second coup. He was later sworn in as interim president.
The military junta proposed to stay in power for five years to stabilise the country before returning to constitutional rule, but ECOWAS disagreed with the length of stay by the military and demanded a short period of transition
Much of Mali, a vast nation of 21 million people, is plagued by a jihadist conflict that first emerged in 2012 and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
By Salifu Abdul-Rahaman
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