The special envoy of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan arrived this Thursday morning in Bamako. He was welcomed by the Malian foreign minister of the ruling junta. In the process, he began consultations with the hope of obtaining before his departure this Friday from Bamako from the Malian government a “ reasonable delay about the end of the new transition that is about to begin.
With our correspondent in Bamako, Serge Daniel
Shortly after his arrival in Bamako, Goodluck Jonathan, the mediator in the Malian crisis, and his delegation had an interview with the local transition monitoring committee. Composed of representatives of Minusma, the African Union and ECOWAS, this committee made a presentation of the current situation.
►Also read: Mali: ECOWAS in Bamako to try to fix the duration of the transition for good
The 18-month transition comes to an end at the end of February 2022, and there will be no election. Everything now revolves around the new election date to mark the end of the transition in Mali. A joint technical team report exists.
Two transition plans studied
The working atmosphere is rather good between the Cédéo mission and its local contacts. The basis for discussion, as declared by the mediator Goodluck Jonathan, is the document produced by a technical team made up of foreign partners meeting within the Transition Monitoring Committee and Malian personalities.
The two parties are rather pleased with the results of this first phase of discussions. ” The technical teams, the documents they worked on reflect Mali’s reform needs. It now remains to find a good balance between the essential reforms for Mali and the time that is adequate, necessary and realistic to be able to arrive at this consensual document. “says the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop.
In this document that we were able to consult, there are two plans. Map A: 12 months transition from the end of February 2022. Plan B: 16 months. The first option is supported by ECOWAS, the second is rather the vision of the situation of the African Union. But be careful, nothing is settled yet…
Abdoulaye Diop, the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs: “ At this stage, we are unable to make any statement about the duration. But the discussions are continuing in a good spirit. There is good understanding between the two parties. The interviews will continue this Friday.