West African Court suspends sanctions imposed on Mali

A West African Court has ordered the suspension of some punitive sanctions imposed on Mali by the eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union with the French acronym UEMOA.

The judgment is coming ahead of the ECOWAS Extraordinary summit in Ghana on Friday.

UEOMA members, comprising mainly former French colonies in West Africal also belong to the 15-nation regional ECOWAS bloc.

The group uses the common currency, CFA franc, which is tied to the French Treasury.

The members belong to the Central Bank of West Africa, BCEAO, based in Dakar, Senegal.

The group met on January 9 in Accra before an ECOWAS summit to suspend Mali and impose sweeping financial sanctions on the country.

ECOWAS subsequently imposed its own sanctions. This was after Mali’s Col Assimi Goita-led military dominated interim government delayed its earlier transition programme.

An official of the UEMOA Court told journalists on Thursday that the suspension order would be followed by “details” of the legal decision.

The ruling followed suits filed by the Goita-led junta, which described the UEMOA sanctions as “illegal.”

While ECOWAS sanctions might be different, Thursday’s court ruling could impact decision/s of Friday’s ECOWAS summit, which is expected to review the regional sanctions against Mali and also consider possible compromise on the country’s transition timetable.

Former Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan, the ECOWAS Mediator on the Mali crisis ended his latest mission to Bamako this week without any agreement on the transition programme.

In a climbdown from its earlier tough stance, ECOWAS has invited Goita to the Accra meeting, with developments in Guinea and Burkina Faso also on the summit agenda.

Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso are under military rule in a resurgence of coups and regression of democracy in West Africa.