The mission of the five West African Heads of State led by the current President of ECOWAS, Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, ended on Thursday evening, without any breakthrough. Muhammadu Buhari, Mahamadou Issoufou, Alassane Ouattara, Nana Akufo-Addo and Macky Sall failed to get the Malian opposition to accept their plan to get the country out of the crisis. If the ECOWAS leaders remain optimistic as to finding a compromise, for the opposition, the lines have not changed. The ECOWAS leaders, who renewed their support for President Keïta, have called for holding an extraordinary summit of ECOWAS by videoconference next Monday. “At the end of this summit, I think that ECOWAS will take strong measures to support Mali”, Nigerien president said, stressing that “to remove President IBK while he was democratically elected” remains a “red line” for ECOWAS.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 24, 2020 11:03 UTC