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- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has imposed sanctions on the leaders of the coup that occurred in Guinea this month
- At an emergency ECOWAS summit in Accra, Ghana, regional heads of states called for elections to be held in Guinea within six months
- They also renewed calls for President Alpha Condé to be released
- Meanwhile, coup leaders meet with mining companies operating in the resource-rich nation
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has imposed sanctions on the leaders of the September 5 coup in Guinea, which was led by an elite military group.
Regional heads of state met at an emergency summit in Accra, Ghana, to discuss the situation in Guinea after a high-level ECOWAS delegation returned from Guinea’s capital Conakry.
Speaking after the summit, ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou called for the junta to return the country to constitutional rule as quickly as possible. Meanwhile the junta is currently holding a week-long dialogue on the formation of a transition government.
“The transition should not last more than six months. In six months, elections should be held,” Mr Kassi Brou said.
The economic and political bloc also decided to impose travel bans and freeze the assets of coup leaders and their families, and insisted on the immediate release of Guinea’s ousted President Alpha Condé.
Coup leaders meet mining companies
Meanwhile, in Guinea, as part of the dialogue with political and business leaders, the new military rulers on Thursday met with representatives from major mining companies.
Along with Australia and China, Guinea is one of the world’s largest producers of bauxite, the primary source of aluminium. In 2020, the resource-rich nation produced more than 87 million tonnes of bauxite and exported more than 82 million tonnes.
Following the talks in Conakry, Sony Doumbouya, Deputy General Manager of French company Alliance Minière Responsable, said that for the moment the company and its partners had not been negatively impacted by the situation.
“We think this approach was the right one and at the moment everything is perfect, so we think that if we continue like this, we won’t have any problems, investors will be reassured and companies who are in their developing phase or the exploration phase will also be reassured to continue the mining exploitation on the basis they have started with,” Mr Doumbouya said.
Following the coup, aluminium prices skyrocketed to 13-year highs. Coup-leader Mamady Doumbouya quickly sought to reassure the country’s economic and financial partners, and asked miners to continue operations.
