ECOWAS has sent President Alassane Ouattara (Ivory Coast) to represent regional interest as the bloc moves to try and contain fallout from the Guinean coup.
A delegation of West African leaders arrived Guinea on Friday after regional bloc urged rapid elections following a coup in the fragile country.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara was received in Conakry on Friday by Lieutenant-Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, leader of the coup that ousted former Guinean President Alpha Conde on September 5as part of a delegation of west African leaders sent by regional bloc ECOWAS.
The bloc move to meet Guinea’s junta comes after an ECOWAS summit on Thursday which ramped up pressure on Guinea’s coup leaders to hold elections within six months. They also imposed a travel ban on junta members, and froze their financial assets.
Coup leader Lieutenant-Colonel Mamady Doumbouya has not yet responded to the call for elections from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Colonel Mamady Doumbouya this week also held meetings with political and civil-society figures, intending to pave a return to civilian rule though has so far refused to commit to a timetable.
“The only timetable that counts is that of the Guinean people who have suffered so much,” he told political leaders in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
It is on record that Guinea which of now has a population of more than 13 million people has suffered three coups since independence from France in 1958.