Oct. 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has postponed indefinitely the extraordinary summit that was to be held on October 14 in Senegal to address the situation in Burkina Faso after the new coup last week.
The postponement has been confirmed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Senegal, Aissata Tall Sall, and the Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the regional organization, Abdel Fatah Musah, days after an ECOWAS mission traveled to Burkina Faso to address the situation.
“To explain this postponement it is necessary to understand two things. There was an extraordinary ECOWAS summit after the second coup d’état and while we have all followed Captain (Ibrahim) Traoré’s statement,” said Sall, referring to the new leader of the board, as reported by the Senegalese news portal Dakar Actu.
He also stressed that “Africa must face security issues” and stressed that “more than 60 years after independence, it can be seen that not enough has been done to address them.”
“When I speak of sovereignty I mean sovereignties, in the plural: food sovereignty, political and diplomatic sovereignty, economic and financial sovereignty and sovereignty over how to overcome all these challenges,” he explained, as reported by the Senenews portal.
For this reason, he stressed that coups do not make it possible to deal with the security situation “because it is the politicians who govern and lead the military”. “Before preparing a military solution, a political solution must be prepared,” Sall concluded.
The announcement about the postponement of the summit came days after the new leader of Burkina Faso’s military junta, Ibrahim Traoré, justified the coup by “a progressive deviation of the transition” and promised ECOWAS that ” will respect the international commitments” adopted by the authorities of the African country.
Traoré also called on the body to “accompany” the board “in the search for a better future for the Burkinabe people”, including its “intercession” with the international community, while ECOWAS showed its “satisfaction” for “the spirit of agreement, which has allowed a return to calm”.
The coup led by Traoré, considered a ‘palace coup’ by a sector of the military junta opposed to the until then leader of the junta, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba –who has fled to Togo–, took place before the continuous deterioration of the security situation and attacks by jihadist groups.
Burkina Faso has generally experienced a significant increase in insecurity since 2015, with attacks carried out by both the Al Qaeda affiliate and the Islamic State affiliate, causing a wave of internally displaced persons and refugees towards other countries of the region.
