President Muhammadu Buhari is at a virtual meeting of the Extraordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government.
The main agenda for the virtual meeting is to seek a fresh push to end the escalating political crisis in Mali.
The summit comes on the heels of a five-day mediation mission from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which ended on Sunday without reconciling the two sides.
Five of the region’s leaders met Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and leaders of a protest movement clamouring for his resignation, as a long-running jihadist insurgency threatens to throw the country into chaos.
But the intervention failed to seal a deal and Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou — at the talks along with the leaders of Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria — said Western African bloc ECOWAS would hold a summit on Monday.
The June 5 Movement, named after the date when the protests began, has tapped into deep anger over Keita’s perceived failure to tackle the dire economy, corruption and the eight-year jihadist revolt.
Keita, who came to power in 2013, has come under increasing pressure to end Mali’s long-running jihadist conflict.
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The nation of twenty million people has been struggling to contain an insurgency that has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes since 2012, despite the presence of foreign troops.
But much of the current tension was sparked in April, when the constitutional court tossed out 31 results from the parliamentary elections, benefiting Keita’s party and sparking protests.
Editor:(Omor Bazuaye)
