West African negotiators to visit Mali to try to reverse coup as junta and opposition close ranks
- Delegation will include former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan
- Junta orders country’s borders reopened, though neighbours likely to keep land borders shut
West African countries will send a delegation to Mali in an effort to reverse a military coup, presidents from the region said, as an opposition coalition there joined the junta in rejecting foreign interference.
Leaders of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) convened over the crisis on Thursday, after it suspended Mali, shut off borders and halted financial flows in response to Tuesday’s overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
The coup, which has rocked a country already in the grip of a growing insurgency by Islamist militants and civil unrest, has been met with almost universal condemnation abroad.
At the end of the meeting, Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, the acting ECOWAS president, issued a statement saying the heads of state demanded that Keita be returned to power and would “immediately” dispatch a delegation to Mali that would include former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan.
The statement also called for the ramping-up of ECOWAS’s standby military force, but it was not clear whether any military action was being contemplated.