Mali Military Junta Names Ex-Minister As Head of Transition Government

Posted by African Examiner African News, Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News Around Africa Monday, September 21st, 2020

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Mali’s former Defence Minister, Ba N’Daou has been announced as the President of a new transition government.

The leader of the Sahel state’s ruling military junta, Colonel Assimi Goita announced this on national television Monday.

According to a roadmap backed by the junta, the new President is meant to lead the country for several months before staging elections and returning Mali to civilian rule.

The African Union (AU) had called on the military junta in Mali to quickly appoint civilian leaders to manage an 18-month transition towards elections after last month’s coup.

The AU’s 15-member security body late Thursday echoed the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which imposed sanctions on landlocked Mali after the coup toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Junta leader met with West African leaders last week in Ghana but failed to resolve a critical sticking point — whether soldiers or civilians will lead the transition.

ECOWAS called for a civilian-led transition government to be installed “in days” and said the bloc would lift its sanctions — which include closed borders and a ban on trade and financial flows — once the change has been made.

The AU’s peace and security Commissioner Smail Chergui, said on Twitter last Thursday night, that he was calling “for a return to constitutional order and early civilian-led transition in Mali”.

A separate Twitter post from the official AU Peace and Security Department account said it backed ECOWAS’ call for an 18-month civilian transition.

It also “welcomed” the putschists’ decision to release Keita — who was detained for more than a week — but said they should also free Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and “other dignitaries”.

The AU announced the day after the coup that it was suspending Mali “until restoration of constitutional order”, and it is unclear what additional leverage it has.

However, a spokesman for the junta, Colonel Ismael Wague, said after this week’s talks in Ghana, Mali could face a “total embargo” from ECOWAS if it does not quickly appoint civilian leaders./AFP