Elected at the end of the 61st Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held in Ghana on July 3, 2022, the President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, will have a presidency that could not be more eventful. The multiplication of crises and coups d'Etat helps. While waiting to pass the baton to his successor, he is certainly not yet at the end of his travels and his missions of good offices.
The President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, began his current presidency of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with the military-diplomatic crisis between Ivory Coast and Mali. This concerns the management of the crisis arising from the arrest and detention on mercenary charges of 46 Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali since July 10, 2022.
"I don't think they are mercenaries. We have just seen, the day before yesterday, the declaration of the Secretary General of the United Nations who says that they are not mercenaries. I, in place of the Malians, would have released these 49 soldiers”. By making this statement in particular on the antennas of RFI and France 24, he immediately drew the wrath of the military junta in power in Bamako.
And as if that were not enough, the military junta in power in Conakry in Guinea did not bother with protocol to qualify the incumbent president as a "liar". After he said in particular about Guinea about a Thirty-six-month Transition: “No. I think there is a misunderstanding. This is unacceptable for ECOWAS. Unacceptable and non-negotiable”. And he argued that the discussions had focused on a 24-month Transition and that they had agreed with the Guinean military junta on this timeline.
The reply from the Guinean authorities, on the eve of the extraordinary ECOWAS summit which was to be held on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, was virulent. “Crude lying and remarks that are similar to intimidation are nowadays retrograde practices that do not honor their author and at the same time tarnish the brand image of ECOWAS. We cannot bear this shame (…) We are not in a puppet or reality TV relationship”. Colonel Amara Camara, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Transition, author of this video statement, reacted to the words of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, in front of the French media RFI and France 24.
And two… coups in Burkina Faso
Shortly after the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA, as President of Burkina Faso, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was deposed by his brothers in arms. Having moved away from ambitions of rapprochement with Russia, he was no longer in the odor of holiness with those who had supported him for his coup against President Roch Kaboré. And in the aftermath of the coup d'etat, the second in a few months, led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the rapprochement with Vladimir Putin's Russia was unequivocal. As he was supported by a populist wave both inside and outside Burkina Faso and which claims to be pan-Africanist. The Pan-Africans of today, however, are only a catch-all with a majority of Pro-Russians and anti-West, and particularly anti-French. Even if, in reality, they are not representative of the majority of socio-political currents in the country.
ECOWAS has appointed the former President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou to lead the mediation with a view to the shortest and fastest return to a normal constitutional order. With the key, a democratically elected civilian regime instead of an illegitimate military power.
Missions for reconciliation in Moscow and Kyiv
As current President of ECOWAS, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló carried out a mission on October 25, 2022 respectively to Moscow and Kyiv where he met respectively President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. For the sub-regional institution in West Africa, the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine are evident in its member countries, it was a question of carrying a message of peace between our two brothers and to ensure that the bridge is established for a reunion between the two brothers, as Umaro Sissoco Embaló himself has pointed out.
To the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, he said: “…Today, in my capacity as President-in-Office of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, I also carry the message of all my peers of the 15 States that make up ECOWAS, including Africa as well (…) to come and see you to discuss the current situation of the war between two brothers - Russia and Ukraine, to discuss not only the question of cereals and wheat, but of the world which is blocked, and we think, we hope that we find a way, that we can really see the dialogue between the two brothers. I also think it is very important that President Putin sees, that he also tells us what we can do to help resolve this crisis. We cannot abandon Russia, because we have a centuries-old traditional relationship…”.
To the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, he said: “It is not just fertilizers, fertilizers or grain that Africa needs. Africa also brings peace and wants to bring these two brotherly countries closer together, so that we can really find a path for peace between Russia and Ukraine”.
ECOWAS in the Face of Coups and Jihadist Attacks
Several ECOWAS countries, including Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Niger, Ghana, Mali and Togo met in Accra, Ghana, on November 23, 2022. Objective: to stand up against terrorist attacks. The Accra initiative against terrorist and Jihadist attacks had already existed since 2017. But it was only at the Accra meeting in Ghana that these ECOWAS member countries decided to relaunch it at the end of the meeting of 23 November 2022. In view of the expansion of terrorist groups and the increase in attacks. This Task Force, which should bring together 10,000 men, will be based in Tamale, Ghana. But the Intelligence Headquarters will be in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. It remains to define the practical methods of implementation.
The 62nd summit of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government held on December 4, 2022 in Abuja, Nigeria, decided on the creation of a regional force dedicated to the fight against terrorism and against coups of states. A new version of the old ECOMOG or Economic Community of West African States Cease-fire Monitoring Group. Armed arm of ECOWAS in its time, ECOMOG had its heyday with the forced restoration of a democratic regime overthrown by putshists in Sierra Leone. But under the leadership of General Sani Abacha who was not himself an elected President. But beyond this anecdotal episode, ECOMOG has been effective in more ways than one. Now it is a question of serving against the Jihadists and the Putschists.
According to the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Oumar Touray, the leaders have decided to recalibrate the security architecture, in order to take charge of their own security to avoid relying on external actors every time: "They are determined to establish a regional force which will intervene when necessary, whether it concerns security, terrorism or the restoration of constitutional order in Member States”.
First, however, ECOWAS should ensure that common democratic principles are respected in all member countries. Born in 1990, following the civil war in Liberia, ECOMOG Indeed, the democratic principles within ECOWAS must be convergent for all, whatever the political systems, and respected by all under the watchful eye of the different mechanisms of this sub-regional institution. To avoid any fraud on Democracy, including through third terms.
Return to constitutional order
Many no longer recognize President Sissoko Embalo who, in 2021, had these words to say about the sub-regional institution of which he became the current president: "ECOWAS is a weak and hypocritical organization with no real power and the limit is a political gadget intended to deceive (…) As long as ECOWAS is unable to prevent heads of state from making belligerent constitutional changes to stay in power, no one can prevent the military from s 'invite into the political debate". Or to continue in his criticism of the sub-regional organization: "If ECOWAS does not manage to have the necessary leadership to prevent its members from fiddling with the fundamental laws of their country, finally to ensure a eternal presidency to the detriment of the lives of their compatriots and of democracy, no one can validly condemn soldiers who carry out a coup d'Etat, they say, to establish democracy and the rule of law. If we cannot condemn violators of the Constitution, we cannot either condemn those who stab at the violators of the Constitution…". But that was before his power was shaken by a coup attempt he escaped during a meeting of his government at the palace on February 1, 2022 and take over as the current ECOWAS chairmanship. from the Accra summit in Ghana on July 3, 2022. To the point, all things considered or for reasons that are unknown, of now proposing to ECOWAS a military force against putschists and terrorism.
If the democratic debate remains a worrying and topical subject in all ECOWAS member countries, it is nonetheless true that respect for human rights and democratic requirements have become the most intangible principles of the Economic Community. West African States (ECOWAS). And so much the better. Whoever he is, the current president of the common institution will always have to ensure that the military does not come to usurp power under any pretext. Also, countries such as Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso should comply with the deadlines set by ECOWAS for a normal return to constitutional order.
By Daniel Yaoni
