West African Bloc Sanctions Guinean Junta

In response to the coup in Conakry last year, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has resolved to impose sanctions on people in Guinea’s military administration.

As they attended the UN General Assembly in New York, the bloc’s leaders convened there.

According to the AFP news agency, they decided to impose “gradual sanctions” on a list of individuals connected to the Guinean junta who will be named “very soon.”

Leaders in Guinea claim that a democratic transition will take three years, and they disagree with Ecowas’ expectations for a quicker process.

Bernard Gomou, the interim prime minister of Guinea, said in a statement that Umaro Sissoco Embaló, the president of neighboring Guinea-Bissau and the head of Ecowas, had “forced his way in” to lead the regional organization.

Following the coup in September of last year, Guinea was expelled from Ecowas.