This was contained in a communique released after a meeting of heads of state and govt and the National Committee for the Salvation of the People of Mali at Peduase in the Eastern Region.
The meeting was to allow the leadership of the CNSP to brief and present to the heads of state the architecture and road map for the political transition arrangement in conformity to a recent decision taken by the ECOWAS on August 28, and Sept 7, 2020.
These decisions called for a 12 month led civilian govt to be put in place by 15 september, 2020.
The communique stated that after thorough deliberations, it was decided that both the president and the prime minister for the transition govt should be civilian and be appointed immediately, with an 18 month mandate effective 15th September, 2020.
The civilian led transition govt, according to the communique will restore Mali to constitutional order in line with relevant ECOWAS protocols.
On sanctions, currently imposed on the west african landlocked country, the communique affirmed, it will be lifted once the transitional president and prime minister have been designated.
It also disclosed that the CNSP should be dissolved immediately after the transition is put in place.
The heads of state commended the leadership of the CNSP for allowing former president Ibrahim Keita Boubacar to seek medical attention outside the country and called for the early release of former prime minister Boubou Cisse.
It thanked the media, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan for his efforts and called on the Malian people to work together towards the return to constitutional rule.
Speaking to journalists after the consultative meeting convened by him to resolve the political crisis in the Sahelian country, Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, expressed his desire to see the return to constitutional democracy in Mali.
He said that once the required leadership was put in place through the processes that the Military rulers had agreed on in Mali, the sanctions that had placed on that country would be lifted.
President Akufo-Addo said though an agreement had not reached, the military leadership agreed with the decisions taken at the meeting.
However, the military leadership said they would have to go back to consult with those who were responsible for decisions to get them to buy into it.
In that direction, President Akufo-Addo who was undertaking his first major assignment after being made the regional bloc’s chairman, said the mediator in the crisis, Goodluck Jonathan would return to Bamako in a week’s time to continue with talks with the military Junta.
“The situation in Mali calls for a quick resolution, we have to have a government in place that can begin the process of normalising things, and more than anything else organising the resistance to the Tuareg menace.
“The issue is now in the hands of the Malians,” he stated, hopeful that by the time the mediator returns to Mali, things would have been sorted out so that the sanctions can be lifted.
ECOWAS had imposed sanctions on Mali and asked neighbouring states to close their land and air borders with the country after the military deposed the 75 year old Malian President Ibrahim Keita on August 15, 2020.
The Bloc also suspended all financial flows between the 14 other member states and Mali, suspended the country from international decision-making bodies and gave the military junta a deadline of September 15 2020 to appoint a new civilian president and prime minister.
Tuesday’s meeting was attended by seven Presidents, a vice president, Mali’s political junta and other stakeholders.
Guinea’s Alpha Conde, Togo’s Faure Gnassingbe, Nigerien leader, Mahamadou Issoufou, who is the immediate past ECOWAS Chair, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Burkinanabe head of state Roch Marc Christian Kabore, Ivorian President Alassani Ouattara and the Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo took part in the consultative meeting.
They have since left for their respective countries.
