In Ghana, the elected president, John Mahama, will take office on January 7 after his victory in the presidential election on December 7.
In an exclusive interview with DW, John Mahama says he is concerned about the security situation in West Africa, with terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali.
He says he regrets the departure of these three ECOWAS countries. For him, we must continue the dialogue with the military powers in place in these countries.
“When I was president of ECOWAS, we did not experience a crisis like this. In Burkina Faso, if you remember correctly, there were the civil unrest that followed President Compaoré’s attempts to extend his mandate and the soldiers took power If you remember, we handled the situation differently from the way the new heads of state did. We still have the threat of sanctions, but we do not apply them. not“, says Ghana’s new president-elect.
“What we did in the case of Burkina Faso was that when this happened, as president of ECOWAS, myself, President Macky Sall and President Yayi Boni, were dispatched by ECOWAS to go and talk to the new military leaders. We spoke to them and we said that ECOWAS would be forced to impose sanctions if they did not exit the transition program. John Mahama said again.
John Mahama on DW (audio)
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“So we convened all the stakeholders and that’s how they ended up accepting a transitional program that included a constitutional review, a civilian president and a soldier as prime minister. If you recall, President Kafando was elected president, then the military leader became Prime Minister and they agreed on a transition program leading to elections. And after these elections, Rock Kaboré was elected.
So I think we have to use diplomacy to try to bring them back into the fold. They think our organization has abandoned them and I think we need to get them to change that narrative.”
“The security situation is difficult”
John Mahama says he is concerned about the security situation in West Africa, with terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali.
“If you look at all the risk assessments, you see that Ghana is in a very difficult situation. So we have to work as quickly as possible. An African proverb says that when your neighbor’s house burns, you have to help him put out the fire. Otherwise, when the fire has ravaged his house, it will spread to yours. We must therefore provide Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger with all the support they need to cope. this crisis. Otherwise, it is certain that it will spread to other countries. There are already incursions in northern Togo. I am sure you have heard about them. So we have to be very proactive.”
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