Interim President of Mali Bah Ndaw and interim Prime Minister Moctar Ouane have been detained by the military for refusing to include in the new transitional government two active participants in the August coup, Colonels Modibo Koné and Sadio Camara. The Malian newspaper Journal du Mali reported this on Tuesday.
The Head of State and the Prime Minister were taken on the evening of May 24 to the Kati army base, where they are currently being held, the newspaper noted. Later the Minister of Defense of Mali, General Souleymane Doucouré, was detained and taken to Kati. There were no official reports about their conditions and status. During the August 18, 2020, military coup, the former President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, was taken to the base in Kati. Hours later he announced his resignation.
On Tuesday night, France, the United States, Britain, Germany and the European Union published a communiqué on the portal of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali expressing extreme concern about the situation in Mali and the detention of the President and Prime Minister. The document described the actions as an attempted coup d'état.
Interim President of Mali Bah Ndaw signed a decree on May 24 appointing a new transitional government of the country. It included 25 ministers, the head of the previous government, Moctar Ouane, retained his position as prime minister. Hours later, military groups came to the residences of Bah Ndaw and Moctar Ouane, detained them and took them to Kati base. In a telephone conversation with Agence France-Presse, Ouane stated at the time of their detention that the military was acting on behalf of Vice President Assimi Goïta.
August coup
There was a military coup in Mali on August 18 last year, which began with a mutiny at the Kati military base near the capital, Bamako. The military seized the General Staff, arrested the top leadership, including the president, and formed the National People's Salvation Committee (CMSN). Under pressure, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali announced his resignation and dissolved the government and parliament. Colonel Assimi Goïta, head of the CMSN, was appointed "head of state" by the coup leaders.
On 21 September, the Electoral College constituted by the military endorsed former Minister of Defence and retired Colonel Bah Ndaw as Interim President of Mali for the next 18 months, with Assimi Goïta as Vice-President. Bah Ndaw appointed Moctar Ouane, who was formerly head of the Foreign Ministry, as head of Mali's transitional government by decree on September 27. The military announced that Mali would undergo a transition period and return to democratic rule through presidential and parliamentary elections to be held 18 months after they seized power.
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Based on materials from TASS