Mali: West African delegation and junta optimistic after a day of discussion
“Very optimistic”: the head of a West African delegation that arrived in Bamako on Saturday, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, summed up in two words the talks started on Saturday with the junta which seized power in Mali by overthrowing on Tuesday President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.
“We have seen President Keïta, he is doing very well”, said in the evening Goodluck Jonathan, the appointed mediator of the Community of West African States (ECOWAS), mandated to “ensure the immediate return of constitutional order “in the Sahelian country.
“The interviews are going well”, he added, smiling, before rushing into the suite of his hotel.
Previously, ECOWAS envoys were received for about thirty minutes by members of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, including the country’s new strongman, Colonel Assimi Goïta.
“The discussions took place in a very open atmosphere and we felt a desire to really move forward”, said in the evening the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou.
“The role of ECOWAS is essentially to support Mali. The solution that we must find, and I believe that everyone agrees, it is a solution which satisfies the Malians first and which is also beneficial for all the countries of the sub-region, ”he added.
Discussions with the junta, which “have started well”, will continue on Sunday and “we hope to be able to finalize everything by Monday,” he said.
According to the spokesperson for the military, Ismaël Wagué, “the exchanges with ECOWAS are going very well”.
“We have understood that heads of state, like the Ivorian Alassane Ouattara, are working for a relaxation, for a peaceful solution, even if they have firmly condemned our seizure of power. We are open to discussions,” said one another source within the junta.
– The acclaimed military –
The West African envoys also went to Kati, a garrison town on the outskirts of Bamako that has become the center of the new power, where they met, according to this source, the personalities arrested by the military, including Prime Minister Boubou Cissé. , the President of the National Assembly Moussa Timbiné, and the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Abdoulaye Coulibaly.
The delegation is due to meet on Sunday morning the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (France, United States, Russia, Great Britain and China).
The neighboring countries of Mali, gathered in an Extraordinary Summit, demanded Thursday the “recovery” of President Keïta and decided to send this delegation to Bamako, the fourth of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan since the start of the socio-political crisis which has shaken Mali since the disputed legislative elections of March-April.
Elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2018, President Keïta was strongly contested in the street at the call of a motley opposition movement which demanded his resignation.
Denounced by the international community, the military coup did not arouse any notable opposition in Bamako. The Malians resumed their activities the day after the putsch and the national television, ORTM, continues its programs.
The military in power, for the most part trained in France, the United States or Russia, have promised to quickly put in place a “political transition”. They were cheered on Friday by thousands of people in central Bamako.
Saturday morning, a few dozen supporters of President Keïta tried to demonstrate in Bamako, before being dispersed by the police.
– Four soldiers killed –
As political and diplomatic talks continue in Bamako, four soldiers were killed and one seriously injured on Saturday by an explosive device in the center of the country.
In March 2012, when the Tuareg rebels launched a major offensive in northern Mali, soldiers had already mutinied against the government’s inability to cope with the situation, driving out President Amadou Toumani Touré.
But the coup had precipitated the fall of northern Mali into the hands of armed Islamist groups, until they were largely driven out by an international military intervention launched by France in January 2013 and still ongoing. .
Attacks by jihadist groups spread in 2015 to the center of the country, causing heavy civilian and military casualties.
These attacks, mixed with intercommunal violence, also spilled over into neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso.
The inability of the Malian state to control large parts of its territory in the north and the center has been denounced for months by opponents of President Keïta.
The putschists also justified their intervention in particular by the insecurity reigning in the country and by the lack of means of the army.
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