Ghana: Mahama cancels visit to WEF in Abuja

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered a three-day lockdown of Abuja during the upcoming World Economic Forum.

This week, President John Mahama wrote a letter, in his capacity as ECOWAS chairman, to his Nigerian counterpart expressing deep sadness at the recent bomb attacks in Abuja as well as the abduction by Boko Haram of around 300 schoolgirls from Borno State. We have heard, however, that Mahama has cancelled his planned visit to the WEF in Abuja citing pressure of work in Accra.  A government spokesperson told Ghana Politics & Security that the country will instead be represented at the meeting by a range of officials and leading local business people.

The meeting in Abuja, themed Forging Inclusive Growth, Creating Jobs, is scheduled to take place from 7-9 May and will be attended by world leaders and business executives around the world, including President Mahama, the presidents of Rwanda, Senegal and Kenya, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Jonathan has ordered officers and equipment to be deployed all over the city and its outskirts, and security has been increased at all strategic locations, entry and exit points, airports and highways. This is the result of Boko Haram’s recent attacks in Abuja. Last week, a car bomb exploded in the suburb of Nyanya, killing at least 19 people. In mid-April, there was an attack at a busy bus station in the same location which killed at least 75 people.

For more news and expert analysis about Ghana, please see Ghana Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Ghana: Mahama says he will support ongoing negotiations between ECOWAS and EU

President John Mahama says he will support the ongoing negotiations between ECOWAS and the EU on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

Welcoming an ECOWAS delegation to Accra for a summit in his capacity as its new group chairman, Mahama said that it would be “disastrous” for Ghana to unilaterally pursue any agreement with the EU. “Ghana will continue to play a facilitative role, especially now that we have assumed the Chairmanship of ECOWAS,” he said. “It is our intention to call a meeting of a technical grouping to narrow down the issues that are outstanding, so that we can move ahead and complete the negotiations of the EPA with the European Union.”

Also crucial to the region’s economic development is intra-regional trade, Mahama said, as he called on heads of government across West Africa to take measures to remove trade barriers. Turning to security matters, he pledged to encourage collective action to deal with terrorist group Boko Haram in the wake of several high profile incidents in Nigeria in recent weeks.

For more news and expert analysis about Ghana, please see Ghana Politics & Security.
© 2014 Menas Associates

Mali: Prime Minister Diarra ashamed at interim leader's beating

In a TV broadcast, Mali's Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra said he is ashamed that the country's interim President Dioncounda Traore was beaten unconscious by protesters on Monday 21st May.

Traore was attacked a day after a deal was made with coup leader Capt Amadou Sanogo for Traore to remain in office for a year.

In the same televised address, Diarra appealed for calm and called for the protests to stop. A spokesman for regional bloc ECOWAS said Mali could face sanctions if the military was in any way involved.

There has been speculation that soldiers allowed demonstrators, who backed the coup leaders, into Traore's office. He was reportedly unconscious when he reached the hospital, but was later released.

It is thought that the protesters were furious that Traore's decree, which was due to end on Monday, was prolonged. The recent political upheaval in the country and the rebel seizure of northern Mali, have seen thousands of people flee their homes.

Human rights groups are concerned about the humanitarian situation in the country, which is also currently undergoing a draught.

Speaking about the incident Diarra said: "I am ashamed to relate what happened this morning. I'm asking the young people who protested today not to protest again. I have understood their complaints and I'll make sure that the right people hear about them. Given the situation that this country is in right now, vandalism and looting is not what we need. It's not going to help the reconstruction of the nation."

ECOWAS representatives left Bamako on Monday, saying "we have accomplished our mission". The bloc's spokesman Sunny Ugoh, however, told the BBC he was shaken at the events that followed their departure and said sanctions were now a possibility.

He added: "We're rather shocked that this kind of incident would happen barely 24 hours after a delegation from ECOWAS managed to secure an agreement with the military. I believe that regional governments are already consulting to see how they can respond to the situation. Sanctions are still on the table if it turns out that those with whom an agreement was reached are complicit in this."

Sources: BBC News, Reuters, AFP

For more news and expert analysis about the Sahara region, please see Sahara Focus.

Mali: ECOWAS threatens to re-impose sanction on military officials

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has said it will re-impose sanctions on officials who led a coup in Mali in March, on grounds of them thwarting a return to constitutional rule. Back in April, ECOWAS lifted sanctions after the coup leaders agreed to return power to a civilian government, but in a recent statement the bloc said the junta was still interfering in the country's politics.

ECOWAS objects to the junta's plans to replace interim President Djouncounda Traore. Speaker of parliament Traore was sworn in as part of the deal under which the military would return the country to civilian rule. Coup leader Capt Amadou Sanogo has called for a national assembly of civil society groups to appoint a new interim government once Traore's term officially ends on 22 May.

ECOWAS wants Traore to continue to lead the interim government for another year. The bloc released a statement, saying: "Failure on the part of the (junta) and their civilian allies to clearly reaffirm their commitment to the transitional arrangement in the next few days will be met with the immediate reinstatement of the targeted sanctions."

In March, a group of army officers led by Capt Sanogo toppled President Amadou Amani Toure, saying he did little to curb the Tuareg-led rebellion in the north. After ECOWAS imposed sanctions, the coup leaders agreed to start a transition back to civilian rule, and parliamentary speaker Traore was sworn in as interim president.

Sources: BBC News, Reuters, AP

For more news and expert analysis about the Sahara region, please see Sahara Focus.

Ghana: Wobble and ambiguities as Mills faces Côte d'Ivoire test

In the most serious regional crisis since President John Atta Mills took office in January 2009, he has sent conflicting signals: both to the presidential rivals in neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire and to Ghana's regional allies in ECOWAS. This week, Ghana's delegation to the AU summit in Addis Ababa will have to work hard both to clarify and justify Accra's stance.

Ghana starts from the position that the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire is both a threat to and a distraction from its own oil and gas-fuelled development plans. The Ivorian crisis, with the reality of political and economic refugees crossing the border to Ghana and the threat of a regional war to oust Gbagbo, makes running Ghana's economy and attracting investment much harder.

As one official in Accra told Ghana P&S: “We are dealing with international investors who hardly differentiate between Congo, Tunisia and Zimbabwe – as far as they're concerned Abidjan is a suburb of Accra. We have to show diplomatic maturity and protect our economic self-interest here...”

The official conceded that there were genuine confusions over Ghana's stance on Côte d'Ivoire which would be cleared up at the Addis Ababa meeting. But, he added there were important questions to be raised about how the crisis has been handled so far. These reflect wider concerns about ECOWAS and the AU overreaching themselves, as well as the residual power of French influence in African diplomatic affairs.

For more news and expert analysis about Ghana, please see Ghana Politics & Security.

© 2010 Menas Associates