- Nineteen prisoners use cutlery to break out of cells at Winchester prison
- France wants progress in Ukraine before Russia returns to G7
- Italy president begins talks to seek way out of government crisis
- Italian PM expected to resign as political chaos deepens
- Russia says US cruise missile test ‘regrettable’
- Kremlin - No date set for Normandy talks on Ukraine despite Macron meeting
- Egypt court hands out 6 death sentences on terror charges
- Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat
- Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests
- Gran Canaria wildfire triggers evacuation of thousands of people
- PM Johnson calls on Germany and France to compromise on Brexit
- Sudan's ex-president Bashir arrives at corruption trial
Tuesday, 25 August 2020_Negotiations between West African mediators and Mali’s new military junta have concluded without an agreement on how the country should return to civilian rule.
The two sides released separate statements on Monday after three days of talks saying that Mali’s ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita — whose return to office had been initially demanded by the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) — no longer wished to return to power and certain issues had remained unresolved.
The 15-member ECOWAS on Saturday dispatched a high-level delegation led by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan to Mali’s capital of Bamako to push its demands for “immediate return to constitutional order” following a coup in the country on August 18.
“There were discussions on both sides, given that at this stage nothing has been set down, nothing has been decided, and that as far as we are concerned, the final architecture of the transition will be discussed and defined by us,” said a spokesman for the new junta, Colonel Ismael Wague.
Meanwhile, Jonathan, who said he requested and was granted access to Keita, emphasized, “President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita told us that he has resigned. That he was not forced to do so. That he does not want to return to politics and that he wants a quick transition to allow the country to return to civilian rule.”
He said ECOWAS and the junta “have agreed on a number of issues, but there are some issues that we have not agreed [on].”
“So on those issues, we told the military officers the thinking of ECOWAS and we asked them to go and review,” Jonathan added.
Your Comment