Vice President of Mali Assimi Goïta announced on Tuesday that he had taken the necessary action against the interim president of the country, Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, because of their violation of last August's transitional charter, which had temporarily replaced the constitution. This was stated in a special statement issued by Goïta on the situation in Mali, posted on the official portal of the country's government.
"When appointing ministers to the new government, the president and the prime minister violated a crucial provision of the transitional charter by failing to agree on the composition of the power bloc with the vice president," Goïta stressed. - "As a result, steps were taken to protect the fundamental document of the transitional period."
The Malian newspaper Journal du Mali reported that the new government, which was announced last Monday, did not include two key members of the August military coup, Colonels Modibo Koné and Sadio Camara. In the previous government, they served as security minister and defense minister, respectively. Goïta was one of the leaders of the August 2020 military coup.
The head of state and prime minister were taken under convoy on the evening of May 24 to the Kati army base on the outskirts of the capital Bamako, where they are being held. Mali's defense minister, General Sulaiman Doucouré, was later detained and taken to Kati. In his statement, Goita did not specify the situation of the state's top leaders or his own plan for the future. However, the vice president stressed that the transition process is ongoing and that parliamentary and presidential elections will be held in Mali in 2022.
On Tuesday night, France, the US, Britain, Germany and the European Union issued 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 statement called those actions an attempted coup d'etat.
August coup
In Mali, there was a military coup on August 18 last year, which began with a mutiny at the military base of Kati, near the city of Bamako. The military seized the General Staff, arrested the top leadership, including the president, and formed the National People's Salvation Committee. Under pressure, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali announced his resignation and dissolved the government and parliament. Colonel Assimi Goita, head of the Center, 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 Goita 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