Press Release

Addis Ababa, March 29, 2012: The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Jean Ping, deeply regrets that security problems caused by demonstrations organized at the Bamako airport prevented the accomplishment of the mission that a high-level ECOWAS delegation was to undertake yesterday to Bamako, in pursuance of the decision adopted by the ECOWAS Extraordinary Summit held in Abidjan, on 27 March 2012.

The Chairperson of the Commission reaffirms AU’s determination, in close collaboration with ECOWAS, to make every effort to ensure the speedy return to constitutional order in Mali, as well as to preserve the national unity and territorial integrity of that country.

The Chairperson of the Commission urges the authors of the coup d’Etat to cooperate fully with ECOWAS in the efforts it is deploying, with the full support of the AU, towards the speedy settlement of the crisis, and to respond, without further delay, to the demands contained in the communiqué of the ECOWAS Extraordinary Summit held in Abidjan and the communiqué of the emergency meeting of the delegation of the six ECOWAS Heads of State on the situation in Mali, which took place in Abidjan on 29 March 2012.

 

Deeply concerned by the developments in the northern part of Mali, the Chairperson of the Commission reiterates AU’s call for the immediate cessation of hostilities and the launching of negotiations to find an early solution to the crisis.

 

The Commission is making the necessary preparations for the urgent convening of a meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council, to take the decisions called for by the situation, enhance AU’s support to ECOWAS’s efforts and further mobilize the international community in support to the African position on the situation in Mali.

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