Ecowas Rejects Mali Junta Conditions To Quit Power
https://nigeriaafrica1.blogspot.com/2013/02/ecowas-rejects-mali-junta-conditions-to.html
The Ecowas mediation team that is negotiating “an honourable exit” of soldiers from politics in Mali is unsatisfied with the conditions laid down by the military junta.
Some of the junta leaders want consular positions abroad while others want “excellent” retirement conditions, the mediation team was quoted as saying in local media reports on Wednesday.
The junta leader Captain Amadou Sanogo however insists on maintaining his amorphous yet powerful position “in order to pursue reforms in the army.”
But the Ecowas mediation team has said that these exigencies were not negotiable and want the junta to relinquish power immediately.
The stalemate is developing as the European Union and the international community is gradually lifting economic and political sanctions imposed on the country in the aftermath of Captain Sanogo’s coup in March 2012.
Ecowas officials are of the opinion though that the removal of the soldiers from the presidential palace cannot be a bottleneck to the ongoing reconciliation process.
But the seeming refusal of the Tuareg rebels to cohabit with the Malian army which is mostly controlled by Captain Sanogo could throw the spanner in the reconciliation process.
Last week, the Tuareg rebels belonging to the Movement for the Liberation of Azawad or MNLA spiritedly opposed the presence of Malian troops in one of their bastions in the region of Kidal.
The rebels were not so much opposed to the presence of French troops, though.
An estimated 1,800 Chadian troops backed by the French army have captured Kidal from the Islamist jihadists and are holding ground.
For the first time on Tuesday, French defence ministry officials revealed that several hundreds of Islamist jihadists have been killed since the onslaught that began last month to boot out the terror groups from northern Mali.
The junta leader Captain Amadou Sanogo however insists on maintaining his amorphous yet powerful position “in order to pursue reforms in the army.”
But the Ecowas mediation team has said that these exigencies were not negotiable and want the junta to relinquish power immediately.
The stalemate is developing as the European Union and the international community is gradually lifting economic and political sanctions imposed on the country in the aftermath of Captain Sanogo’s coup in March 2012.
Ecowas officials are of the opinion though that the removal of the soldiers from the presidential palace cannot be a bottleneck to the ongoing reconciliation process.
But the seeming refusal of the Tuareg rebels to cohabit with the Malian army which is mostly controlled by Captain Sanogo could throw the spanner in the reconciliation process.
Last week, the Tuareg rebels belonging to the Movement for the Liberation of Azawad or MNLA spiritedly opposed the presence of Malian troops in one of their bastions in the region of Kidal.
The rebels were not so much opposed to the presence of French troops, though.
An estimated 1,800 Chadian troops backed by the French army have captured Kidal from the Islamist jihadists and are holding ground.
For the first time on Tuesday, French defence ministry officials revealed that several hundreds of Islamist jihadists have been killed since the onslaught that began last month to boot out the terror groups from northern Mali.
