Ouagadougou: The head of Malian diplomacy, Abdoulaye Diop, refused on Wednesday to comment on the lifting of ECOWAS sanctions, considering that his country is no longer a member of an organization which, according to him, has become , ‘the instrument of foreign powers’.
‘I do not want to comment on a decision that was taken by an organization to which Mali does not belong. As you know, last month (January 28, 2024, editor’s note), Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger officially contacted ECOWAS to indicate that they were withdrawing without delay from this organization,’ declared Tuesday in Moscow, the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop, during a press briefing with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
On Sunday, ECOWAS, in a gesture of appeasement with the Transitional regimes, lifted the economic and financial sanctions which weighed on Mali, Niger and the Republic of Guinea.
She also asked the Alliance of Sahel States (Burkina, Mali and Niger, born in September 2023), to reconsider its depart
ure from the organization in view of the unfortunate consequences that could result for the populations.
‘We have seen that gradually this organization has become an instrument in the hands of certain powers who seek to create disorder in our region and who seek to use our institutions to be able to create problems in the country, even create a threat because the organization has put on the table a threat of military aggression against one of its member states,’ said Mr. Diop, according to comments still reported by the Russian media Sputnik.
The head of Malian diplomacy alludes to the troops that ECOWAS wanted to send to Niger in August 2023 to overthrow the military who came to power and reinstall the deposed president Mohamed Bazoum.
‘We have decided to also provide a geopolitical response by joining forces with a certain number of countries with whom we share the same reality but also the same vision of solidarity between countries, to establish links of fraternity and mutual respect and to protect us
from situations of interference. I think this is what is important to remember today within the framework of the Alliance of Sahel States. We are working to achieve what we could not achieve within the framework of ECOWAS,’ concluded Abdoulaye Diop.
Source: Burkina Information Agency