ECOWAS to hold Extraordinary Summit on the Political Situation in Mali

The Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will hold an Extraordinary Summit on the Political Situation in Mali in Accra today.

The meeting will consider the recent political developments in the West African nation, following a visit to the Malian capital, Bamako last Wednesday by the ECOWAS Mediator to Mali, former Nigerian leader Goodluck Jonathan, who met Mali's "strongman," Colonel Assimi Goita.

The regional grouping, chaired by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will examine at the meeting, the timetable submitted to the bloc by the Malian authorities to return the crisis-hit sahelian country to constitutional rule.

The Malian authorities are pushing for a five year transition period, and the ECOWAS leaders, who have stated emphatically that the bloc would not accept such delays, will respond to the transition timetable at the Accra meeting.