The new strongman of Mali, Colonel Assimi Goïta, in Bamako on August 22, 2020. – / AP / SIPA
The new strong men of Mali intend to give themselves the time to install their power. If they agreed not to remain at the head of the country indefinitely, they informed the delegation of the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that came to meet them that new elections would not be for tomorrow. . The join who took power on August 18 announced a three-year transition on Sunday evening and agreed to release ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.
A government of soldiers
“This transition will be led by a body chaired by a military, who will at the same time be head of state, ”said a source within the ECOWAS delegation, after the second day of negotiations with the new team in power in Bamako. A member of the junta confirmed this information by specifying that the transitional government will be “mostly made up of soldiers”.
Only satisfaction for the ECOWAS, the president overthrown by the coup “will be able to return to his home” in Bamako “and if he wishes to travel for care, there is no problem”. As for Prime Minister Boubou Cissé, arrested at the same time as Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and detained in the military camp of Kati, on the outskirts of the capital, “we got the junta to accept that he be in a residence. secure in Bamako, ”added a West African official.
Well-disposed soldiers, according to ECOWAS
As progress is relatively thin, negotiations must resume. The president of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, who hopes “to be able to finalize everything by Monday”, underlined the “will to really move forward” of the military. The ECOWAS envoys were received for about thirty minutes by members of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) set up by the junta, including the new strongman of the country, Colonel Assimi Goïta.
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