Mali junta plans ‘transitional’ govt
BAMAKO: Mali’s new military junta said Thursday it would put in place a transitional government as its West Africa neighbours said they would dispatch envoys to help secure “the immediate return of constitutional order” and called for its ousted president to be restored to office.
Rebel soldiers seized power on Tuesday, detaining President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other officials in a fresh setback for a country battling chronic instability and a jihadist revolt.
“We are going to set in place a transitional council, with a transitional president who is going to be either military or civilian,” junta spokesman Ismael Wague said in an interview with the TV channel France 24.
“We are in contact with civil society, opposition parties, the majority, everyone, to try to set the transition in place,” he said, adding that the transition “will be the shortest possible”.
The comments came after the regional bloc Ecowas voiced its support for Keita and “constitutional order.”
“We have decided to immediately send a highlevel delegation in order to ensure the immediate return of constitutional order,” Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou said at the end of a video summit Thursday.
Issoufou said that through talks, Ecowas would “convey to the leaders of the military junta that the times of taking power by force are over in this region.”
The coup is Mali’s second in eight years.
A putsch in 2012 was followed by an insurrection in the north of the country which developed into a jihadist insurgency that now threatens neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.
Thousands of UN and French troops, along with soldiers from five Sahel countries, have been deployed to try to stem the bloodshed.
“Mali is in a critical situation, with serious risks that a collapse of the state and institutions leads to reversals in the fight against terrorism and organised crime, with every consequence for all our community,” Issoufou warned.
Keita’s overthrow culminated months-long protests in which Ecowas – the Economic Community of West African States – had tried to play a mediating role.
The bloc proposed setting up a unity government including opposition representatives, but also stood firmly by the 75-year-old Keita. The package was bluntly rejected by the opposition.
In addition to the president and the prime minister, the military detained Defence Minister Ibrahima Dahirou Dembele; Security Minister M’Bemba Moussa Keita; and the president of the National Assembly, Moussa Timbine, according to various sources.
They also arrested army chief of staff General Abdoulaye Coulibaly; the president’s personal chief of staff, General Oumar Dao; air force chief General Souleymane Doucoure; and the head of the National Guard, Ouahoun Kone.
The African Union, the European Union, United States and UN Security Council have all condemned the putsch and demanded the release of detained leaders.
Calling itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, under the leadership of a colonel named Assimi Goita, the junta vowed on Wednesday to stage elections within a “reasonable time” and respect “all past agreements,” including international anti-jihadist missions.
It also urged citizens to return to normal life and warned against acts of vandalism after some buildings were torched.
Soldiers were stationed in Bamako Thursday in front of the administrative centre which houses most of the ministries.
Markets were open and Malians, who seemed to generally welcome the change of regime, went about their business as usual. The junta said that the country’s land and air borders – closed after the coup – would reopen on Friday.
We are going to set in place a transitional council, with a transitional president who is going to be either military or civilian. Ismael Wague