The ruling junta in Guinea on Thursday made a very violent attack on the current chairman of ECOWAS shortly before a summit of that organization, denouncing remarks made on Wednesday as a “disgrace” and accusing him of practicing “clown diplomacy”.
“The crude lie and the remarks which are similar to intimidation are nowadays retrograde practices which do not honor its author and tarnish at the same time the brand image of ECOWAS. We cannot bear this shame,” said Colonel Amara Camara, one of the junta’s figures and secretary general of the so-called transitional presidency, in a video. “We are not in a relationship of puppets or reality TV,” he added.
Colonel Camara blamed the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Bissau-Guinea, for his statements to the French media RFI and France 24 on Wednesday.
Mr. Embalo had warned that Guinea would face “heavy sanctions” if the junta, which came to power by force in September 2021, persisted in wanting to stay in power for three years. He reaffirmed that during a visit to Guinea he had obtained an agreement with the junta to hand over to elected civilians after two years, which Colonel Camara described as a “lie.
The leaders of ECOWAS member states met at a summit on Thursday afternoon in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, with the situation in Guinea and the crisis between Mali and Côte d’Ivoire at the top of their agenda.