Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio is in the Ghanaian capital, Accra to attend an extraordinary summit of heads of state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the political crisis in Mali.
Bio flew out of Freetown on Saturday evening, according to Presidential Spokesman Yusuf Keketoma Sandi.
In a short announcement issued via his personal facebook page, Mr Sandi said the president was expected to return to Freetown on Sunday, January 9, the day of the summit.
Other African leaders who made it to Accra for the summit include Nigeria Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who is represent President Muhammadu Buari. Reports monitored by ManoReporters also indicate that the presidents of Senegal, Macky Sall and Guinea Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, have all arrived in Accra.
The summit was convened ahead of the expiry of a deadline for the military led transition in Mali to return the country to civilian rule.
Mali has been under military rule since August 2020, when soldiers led by Col. Assimi Goita, junta leader and transition president, removed the then democratically elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in the midst of a protracted mass protests over his handling of the country’s socio-economic issues.
Nine months later, the military staged a second coup, removing the civilian transition administration it had installed under pressure from ECOWAS.
The sub regional body had since then insisted on the return of the country to democratic rule by this February 27. But the junta says the time period is insufficient to meet all conditions required to conduct elections and hand over to a civilian administration.
Last week the junta came up with its own transition plan, which proposes five years to transfer power, meaning that it will remain be in power until the end of 2026.
That proposal raised the political tension in the country, as opponents of the junta rejected it.
The Accra Summit will discuss the proposal and take a decision on the way forward for the country.
At their last summit on December 12, the West African leaders reiterated their stance on the February 27 deadline and maintained sanctions imposed on about 150 personalities, which entailed freezing of financial assets, and travel ban within the ECOWAS region for members of the transition administration and their families, including the civilian Prime Minister, Choguel Maiga.
ECOWAS also threatened additional “economic and financial” sanctions if the junta refuses to heed to its deadline.
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the ECOWAS mediator in Mali, flew into Bamako on Tuesday ahead of Sunday’s summit for talks with the junta. An ECOWAS document dated January 4th said President Jonathan was to deliver a message from the heads of state and government to the transitional president and junta leader. But details of the message weren’t made public.
The junta has been seeking to convince individual ECOWAS leaders to support its position in the face of possible further sanctions from the bloc.
Earlier this week it dispatched a delegation to Freetown, which met with President Bio.
President Bio has been outspoken against hardline approach to the crisis in Mali and neighboring Guinea, which has also been under military rule since last November and faces ECOWAS sanctions.
A statement from the presidency in Freetown said the Malian delegation sought Bio’s support to help in appealing to fellow ECOWAS leaders to accept its transition plan.
Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, who headed the delegation, was quoted saying:
“I am here as a special envoy from the interim President of Mali, Colonel Assimi Goïta, to seek the guidance and expertise of Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio to be an engine of peace, security and stability in the subregion. And to also assure the leadership of ECOWAS about his willingness to return Mali to constitutional order. Mali is presently facing many difficult challenges. We are ready to work in a collaborative fashion of peace and security,”
The Malian delegation also reportedly wanted to tap into the experience and expertise of President Bio, a former military head of state himself, in returning Sierra Leone to constitutional rule.
