MALI, GUINEA BISSAU CRISIS: ECOWAS Parliament Sets Up Parliamentary Committee

The Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS Parliament, has raised a Parliamentary Committee on the Political Situation in the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Guinea Bissau.

This was part of the resolutions adopted by the Community Parliament at the end of its September 2012 Ordinary Session in Abuja on Wednesday.

Speaking at the of the close of Session, the Speaker of the Parliament and Nigeria’s Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu said the resolution had become imperative to ensure that  the progress in democratic rule, peace, and regional stability recorded by the sub-region was sustained.

Senator Ekweremadu said:

“We resolved that the Authority of Heads of State and Government toexpedite the application of targeted sanctions against the perpetrators of proven acts designed to obstruct the normal conduct of the Transition that has been painstakingly installed in Mali and whose success is paramount to ensure that the sacrifices the Community is making to restore the territorial integrity of Mali and restore constitutional order in the country yield fruit.

 

“We also called on the authorities of the transitional government and specifically the interim President of Mali to exercise the full extent of their powers to safeguard national independence and territorial integrity and respect international agreements, while political and social forces must remain united in their defence of democratic values and the ideals of regional and African integration”

 

The Speaker further stressed that the Parliament had considered it imperative for “the African Union to lend more vigorous support to ECOWAS initiatives to obtain the cooperation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Algeria and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania towards the planned deployment of the intervention force needed to restore the territorial integrity of Mali and secure the Community’s borders”, while also urging the United Nations Security Council to help fast-track the resolve by the Government of Mali and ECOWAS to deploy an intervention force to Mali.

Uche Anichukwu

Special Adviser (Media) to the Deputy President of Senate