Five killed ahead of summit over coup
FOUR civilians and a police officer were killed yesterday by suspected jihadists in southern Mali, a region that has previously been mostly spared from the country’s unrest, a security official said on condition of anonymity.
The unidentified men attacked a checkpoint near the town of Bougouni, around 100km from Mali’s borders with Ivory Coast and Guinea, the official said.
West African leaders were to meet in Ghana yesterday to discuss a response to Mali’s second coup in nine months, which has sparked warnings of fresh sanctions and deep concerns over stability in the volatile Sahel region. Mali’s new president, Colonel
Assimi Goita, arrived in Accra on Saturday for preliminary talks ahead of the extraordinary summit of regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
Presidents Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso’s Marc Christian Kabore were among those to attend the summit, which comes as the attack underscores Mali’s chronic instability. Goita led the young army officers who overthrew Mali’s elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August last year over perceived corruption and his failure to quell a bloody jihadist insurgency.
After the takeover, the military agreed to appoint civilians as interim president and prime minister under pressure from the Ecowas, which has served as a mediator.
But last Monday, soldiers detained transitional president Bah Ndaw and prime minister Moctar Ouane, releasing them on Thursday while saying that they had resigned.
The twin arrests triggered a diplomatic uproar and marked Mali’s second coup within a year.
Mali’s constitutional court completed Goita’s rise to full power on Friday by naming him transitional president. With the junta going back on its previous commitment to install civilian political leaders, doubts have been raised about its other pledges, including holding elections in early 2022. The junta said it would continue to respect that timetable, but added that it could be subject to change.
The Ecowas issued sanctions against Mali after the August coup before lifting them when the transitional government was put in place. The bloc has warned of reimposing sanctions, as have the US and former colonial power France.