Mali’s president and prime minister have been ousted by the officer who led last year’s coup and became vice-president of an interim government. Col Assimi Goïta says President Bah Ndaw and PM Moctar Ouane failed in their duties and were seeking to sabotage the country’s transition. They were arrested hours after a government reshuffle which saw two senior army officers replaced. Col Goïta says elections will still go ahead next year as planned. But he ignored pleas from the UN chief, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), the EU and the US that the president and prime minister be released without any preconditions. The two men have been held at a military camp outside the capital, Bamako, since they were arrested on Monday evening. A delegation from Eco...
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for civilian leaders in Mali to be released, after military officers upset with a government reshuffle detained the president and prime minister at an army camp. “I am deeply concerned by news of detention of civilian leaders of the Malian transition,” Guterres said on Twitter. He continued: “I call for calm & their unconditional release.” President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane lead an interim government, installed under the threat of regional sanctions following a putsch in August, and the detentions on Monday raised fears of a second coup. Two senior officials, who declined to be named, told AFP that soldiers had taken Ndaw and Ouane to the Kati military camp on the outskirts of Bamako. Their detentions fo...
Military officers in Mali arrested the president, prime minister and defence minister of the country’s interim government on Monday after a cabinet reshuffle, multiple diplomatic and government sources told Reuters. President Bah Ndaw, Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and defence minister Souleymane Doucoure were all taken to a military base in Kati outside the capital Bamako, the sources said. The arrests bring further uncertainty to the West African country after a military coup in August overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Ndaw and Ouane had been tasked with overseeing an 18-month transition back to civilian rule after the takeover, but many inside government and the opposition worried about the military’s hold over key positions. The arrests occurred after the announcement of a chan...
The West African bloc ECOWAS will likely decide on Friday whether to lift potentially crippling sanctions imposed on Mali after last month’s coup, its mediator said. The mediator, Nigerian former president Goodluck Jonathan, called the 15-nation bloc’s sanctions “unfortunate” during a visit to Mali’s capital Bamako on Wednesday. West African leaders have heaped pressure on the ruling military junta to return power to civilians since the coup toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18. ECOWAS has used the sanctions, which include closing borders and restricting trade, as leverage in negotiations with the junta. Sticking points in those negotiations have included whether civilians or soldiers will run a transition government until fresh elections. The junta asked for the sanctions...
A West African delegation visiting Mali to push for a speedy return to civilian rule following a coup said it was “very hopeful” on Saturday after meeting with the country’s military junta and the president it ousted. The head of the delegation from the regional Ecowas bloc, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, said that detained Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was doing relatively well. “We saw him, he’s very fine,” said Jonathan, who had earlier met for half an hour with the soldiers who seized power on Tuesday, including new strongman Colonel Assimi Goita. Jonathan told AFP that negotiations were going well and he was “very hopeful”. Rebel soldiers seized Keita and other leaders after a mutiny on Tuesday, dealing another deep blow to a country already struggling with a b...
Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Tuesday received 109 stranded Nigerians repatriated from Mali at the International Wing of Murtala Muhammed International Airport Ikeja in Lagos. The Director General of NEMA, Muhammed Muhammadu, who received the returnees, said that they would be isolated for 14 days in Ikeja before they would be free to reunite with their families. Newsmen reports that the returnees, who were received at 3.15am, comprise 11 male adults, 89 female adults, with 4 male children and 5 female children. Muhammadu said that the returnees were assisted back into the country by the International Organization of Migration (IOM). He enjoined the returnees to be careful with those that promise greener pastures outside the country. The NEMA...