Talks between regional bloc, Mali’s new junta on return to civilian rule end without result
Negotiations between West African mediators and Mali’s new military junta have concluded without an agreement on how the country should return to civilian rule.
The two sides released separate statements on Monday after three days of talks saying that Mali’s ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita — whose return to office had been initially demanded by the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) — no longer wished to return to power and certain issues had remained unresolved.
The 15-member ECOWAS on Saturday dispatched a high-level delegation led by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan to Mali’s capital of Bamako to push its demands for “immediate return to constitutional order” following a coup in the country on August 18.
“There were discussions on both sides, given that at this stage nothing has been set down, nothing has been decided, and that as far as we are concerned, the final architecture of the transition will be discussed and defined by us,” said a spokesman for the new junta, Colonel Ismael Wague.
Meanwhile, Jonathan, who said he requested and was granted access to Keita, emphasized, “President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita told us that he has resigned. That he was not forced to do so. That he does not want to return to politics and that he wants a quick transition to allow the country to return to civilian rule.”
He said ECOWAS and the junta “have agreed on a number of issues, but there are some issues that we have not agreed [on].”
“So on those issues, we told the military officers the thinking of ECOWAS and we asked them to go and review,” Jonathan added.
The military staged a coup last Wednesday, detaining the president and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse, as well as other ranking government officials.
The military rulers say they “completed the work” of the protesters who had been calling for the president’s resignation for months over alleged corruption and deteriorating security in areas where affiliates of al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorist groups are active.
The new junta, calling itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), has promised to oversee a transition to elections within a “reasonable” amount of time.
The coup has, however, been condemned abroad, with regional countries calling for a return to civilian rule and threatening to impose sanctions if that does not happen.
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