West African court orders removal of sanctions against Mali

By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) – The court of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) on Thursday ordered the lifting of sanctions imposed on Mali by the eight-nation body.

The UEMOA slapped sanctions on Mali in January after the military junta, which first seized power in August 2020 and then again in May 2021, delayed elections that would restore democratic rule in the country.

Malian authorities challenged the sanctions at the UEMOA court, which ruled that their complaint was “admissible in form.”

It ordered the bloc to withdraw the sanctions, which led to the suspension of almost all of its commercial transactions with Mali and significantly exacerbated the West African country’s debt crunch.

The UEMOA member states are Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

The group’s measures came in conjunction with sanctions against Mali by the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which blocked Malian state assets, closed off borders and halted financial transactions.

The steps against Mali were taken after the military junta, which is led by Assimi Goita, who has been serving as the country’s interim president since May 2021, postponed the elections that were scheduled for February 2022.

The junta and its National Transitional Council have set a timeline of up to five years for the elections.

ECOWAS has held several rounds of talks with the Malian junta for “an acceptable transitional timetable,” but the discussions have not yielded any concrete results.

Goita, who was previously barred from ECOWAS events, has now been invited to the bloc’s extraordinary summit in Ghana’s capital Accra on March 25, where Mali’s political situation and future will be in focus.