Mali’s interim government proposes shortened delay to elections
EKOHOTBLOG report that In view of threatened sanctions by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the crisis-torn West African state Mali now wants to hold new elections in four years instead of five as previously planned.
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo announced at the beginning of an ECOWAS summit in Accra, the capital of Ghana, that the interim government had made a promise to this effect.
It is unclear whether the international community will agree.
In December, ECOWAS had threatened further sanctions if there was no return to democracy in Mali by the end of February through new elections.
The country has seen three military coups since 2012 and is considered highly unstable.
Thousands of foreign forces, including from France and Germany, are currently involved in peacekeeping and training missions there.
The interim government recently admitted to the presence of Russian military instructors in the country, saying it had given them the same mandate as the EU training mission EUTM.
Germany, France, Britain and other countries had accused Mali of hiring mercenaries from the Russian company Wagner to boost security in the country.
Germany’s Bundeswehr is deployed in Mali with a good 1,350 soldiers as part of the EUTM and the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA.
Several militias are active in the former French colony with around 20 million inhabitants.
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