Over the past four months, 46 Ivorian soldiers are detained in Mali, which accuses them of being mercenaries sent to destabilize the country. As the anti-coup force announced last July is taking shape, the institution is hardening its stance against the Malian junta. 

At the end of the 62nd ECOWAS summit, last Sunday, an ultimatum was given for Mali to release the 46 Ivorian soldiers it is detaining on suspicion of being mercenaries.

During the summit, in Abuja, Nigeria, ECOWAS Heads of State called on Mali to free the soldiers -who are detained for four months now despite intense negotiations with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé as the mediator- by January 1st, 2023.

The ultimatum is sent just weeks after Côte d'Ivoire announced it would withdraw from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). With Mali and Côte d’Ivoire disagreeing over the conditions for the release of the detained soldiers, ECOWAS could impose new sanctions on the Malian Junta if the soldiers are not freed by the set date.  

During the summit, the Heads of State also validated the creation of a regional force. It "will be a response force to combat terrorism and unconstitutional [regime] changes in the sub-region,” Omar Alieu Touray (photo), new President of the ECOWAS Commission, told RFI.

 "To fund the new force,  Heads of State have decided not to depend on voluntary funding, because until now, we have seen that voluntary fundings are [almost] never paid. We will see how we can finance the force with our resources,” he added.  

In July, ECOWAS's current chairman Umaro Sissoco Embalo floated the idea of creating an anti-coup force to respond to the coups organized in Africa since 2020.  "No one should believe that there is a fast-track to becoming Head of State [...]  There is a [well-elaborated] procedure. We have to be civic-minded.  Only citizens can choose their leaders [through votes]. However, citizens are sometimes accomplices," he said during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, who also supported the initiative.

Let’s note that in less than two years, coups were organized in three West African countries to overthrow democratically elected governments. Those countries are Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso, which are now headed by military governments with which ECOWAS is trying to negotiate short and peaceful transitions.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou