Abuja-Nigeria — The political situations in Guinea Bissau and Mali will dominate discussions at the 41st Ordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government taking place on Friday, 29th June, 2012 in Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire.
The summit will be briefed on the current status of the mediation in the Mali crisis by the President of Burkina Faso, His Excellency Blaise Compaoré, the mediator appointed by regional leaders in the wake of the 22nd March coup that toppled former President Amadou Toumani Toure.
The leaders will also receive briefing by the President of the Regional Contact Group on Guinea Bissau on the developments in that country. In addition, they will consider, among others, the memorandum by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, on the situation in Mali and his report on Guinea Bissau.
The summit will also consider the 2012 Interim Report of the President of the Commission, as well as Reports of the 68th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers and the 11th Extraordinary Session of the Council. Ambassador Ouédraogo, who assumed duty in March 2012, will officially be sworn in during the summit, whose opening ceremony will feature an address of welcome by the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Alassane Dramane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire.
Other statements will come from the ECOWAS President, Ambassador Ouédraogo, Chairperson of the African Union, Mr. Jean Ping, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative in West Africa, Mr. Saïd Djinnit.
