ECOWAS Delays Financial Framework For Military Deployment

Ivorian Foreign Affairs Minister Daniel Duncan last Saturday in Abidjan said that ECOWAS had not drawn a financial framework for the deployment of troops to Mali and Guinea Bissau.

Duncan, who chaired an extra-ordinary meeting of ECOWAS Ministers on Mali and Guinea Bissau, said the deployment of troops would involve logistics and different time frames and conclusions.

Duncan told our correspondent on the sideline of the meeting that: “we are still waiting for the outcome from a group that is working on it.

In a communiqué issued at the end of its meeting, the ECOWAS ministers said that the regional bloc would still follow up on dialogue for the resolution of the impasse in the two West African countries.

The ministers said that delegates would be sent to Guinea Bissau and Mali to continue the dialogue of returning the countries to constitutional governments.

Military officers took over power in both countries at a period of presidential elections, removing the presidents while the transition programmes had not been concluded.