President of Ghana and Chairman of ECOWAS, Nana Akufo-Addo, has opened the fifth Extraordinary summit of the ECOWAS heads of State and Government on the political situations in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso in Accra.
He is hosting his colleague heads of state in a closed-door meeting to take stock of the political situations in the three West African countries (i e Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso) he refers to as “recalcitrant states”.
For over a year and a half, there have been four coup d’états in the ECOWAS sub-region with the first taking place on 18 August 2020, in Mali by the Military led by Asime Gotta.
Another unconstitutional takeover of power took place on the 5th September 2021 in Guinea and the third coup took place on the 24th January 2022, in Burkina Faso.
ECOWAS Heads of State have in each of the coup d’états, instituted some sanctions against the military leaders in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
They also demanded that the military juntas in the countries take immediate steps to restore democratic rule.
The three affected countries have in separate proposals, presented road maps to transition their respective nations back to constitutional rule.
However, ECOWAS has rejected the transition proposals which range between two and three years; demanding the return to constitutionally democratic rule.