The economic community of Central African States is seeking to emerge from its internal crisis. She held a summit of heads of state on Saturday. The sanctions taken against Gabon after the August 30 coup were lifted, and at the same time, the President of the Commission saved his head. After several years of serious internal tensions and criticism of his management, the Angolan Gilberto da Piedade Verissimo was subject to an unprecedented sanction. He escaped but received a serious warning.
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Gilberto da Piedade Verissimo is reportedly on probation. The president of the commission was subject to a motion of incompetence, a unique sanction in the history of the ECCAS. According to a good source, the organization’s ministers received the president of the commission just before the summit. A closed door where he would have been “ severely called to order and reprimanded », According to a diplomat.
The sanction went up to the level of heads of state who would have warned Gilberto da Piedade Verissimo, without dropping the ax. According to several sources, Equatorial Guinea andAngola would have defended the diplomat.
In the end, an arrangement would have made it possible to avoid punishing him in exchange for a lifting of sanctions against the Gabon. “ It’s understandable. The issue is so serious, it was necessary to avoid an open crisis within the ECCAS », confides a good connoisseur. Especially since Libreville, suspended from the institution, would have half-heartedly threatened to no longer pay its contributions.
Ultimately, Gilberto da Piedade Verissimo was given a task list on outstanding issues since his arrival in 2020. “ It is a way of diluting the motion of deficiency in diplomatic language, but it remains on the table », confides a manager. Financing, institutional reform or even adoption of texts… The Angolans have a few months to execute their roadmap and thus show that the message from the heads of state has been received.