Nigeria’s former President, Goodluck Jonathan is leading a team of ECOWAS leaders to Mali where the military has overthrown the elected government of President Ibrahim Keita.
The turn of events followed a mutiny on Tuesday by soldiers, who later arrested Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse, in what transformed into a coup d’etat.
Keïta was forced to resign and to also dissolved the parliament and the government headed by Prime Minister Boubou Cisse.
However, AFP reports that Jonathan would be leading the team to Mali on Saturday to find amicable solution to the crisis rocking the West African nation.
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ECOWAS on Thursday announced that it would dispatch a high-level delegation “to ensure the immediate return of constitutional order”. It also demanded that Keita be restored as president and warned the junta that it bore “responsibility for the safety and security” of the detainees.
But AFP reports on Friday that Jonathan, who is ECOWAS Special Envoy to Mali, alongside 14 other leaders in the regional bloc, would be in the Malian capital of Bamako on Saturday for peace talks with the junta leaders including Assimi Goita who has declared himself head of the junta.
Also, Channels TV quoted a member of the new junta and an ECOWAS source, as saying that the leaders were expected to arrive in the West African country on Saturday.
The source described the mission to Bamako as aiming “to help the search for solutions,” days after mutinying soldiers took over power in Mali.
“We will receive the ECOWAS delegation with pleasure… it is important to talk to our brothers,” a junta official in the country told AFP on Friday.
AFP