President Muhammadu Buhari will on Thursday embark on a one-day official visit to Bamako, Republic of Mali.
This will be Buhari’s first trip out of the country since Nigeria recorded its index COVID-19 case on February 27.
His last known foreign trip was on February 7, when he travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the 33rd ordinary session of heads of state and government of the African Union.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said in a statement on Wednesday that the trip to Mali follows the briefing of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, special envoy of the Economic Community of West African States to Mali.
Jonathan was appointed by the ECOWAS to lead its mediation team to help resolve the socio-political tension Mali.
Jonathan had visited Buhari on Tuesday and had briefed the President on his activities as special envoy to restore peace to Mali.
According to the statement, “The Nigerian President and some ECOWAS leaders led by the chairman of the authority of heads of state and government of the sub-regional organisation, President Issoufou Mahamadou of Niger Republic, agreed to meet in Mali to engage in further consultations towards finding a political solution to the crisis in the country.
“Host President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Presidents Machy Sall of Senegal, Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire are expected to participate in the Bamako meeting.
“Jonathan was at the statehouse in company of Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, president of ECOWAS commission, on Tuesday to brief Buhari on the unfolding situation in Mali, necessitating the visit of ECOWAS leaders to consolidate on the agreements reached by various parties.”
There is currently an uprising against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, who has spent two out of the five years second term in office.
A resistance group, M5, is insisting that the constitutional court must be dissolved, and the president resign, before peace can return to the country.
The crisis had erupted after the court nullified results of 31 parliamentary seats in the polls held recently, awarding victory to some other contenders, which the resistance group said was at the instigation of Keita.
On July 10, riots led to the killing of some protesters by security agents, hence the intervention of ECOWAS.