Mali's Interim President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, who were arrested by the military two days ago, have resigned and left their posts, Agence France Press reported this on Wednesday.
"President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane resigned in the presence of a judge," said Baba Cissé, an adviser to Malian Vice President Assimi Goita.
Cisse said an international mediation mission is in the country. "Negotiations are underway for the release of Ndaw and Ouane and the formation of a new government," he noted.
Military intervention
Mali's President and Prime Minister were detained at their residences on the evening of May 24 by a group of military officers and taken under convoy to the Kati army base near the capital. In a statement issued Tuesday, Vice President Assimi Goita of Mali said he had suspended the president and prime minister because they had violated the transitional charter adopted in August, which temporarily replaced the constitution. Goita said that the president and prime minister had violated a key provision of the transitional charter in appointing ministers to the new government by failing to agree the power bloc with the vice president.
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. Goita was one of the leaders of the August 2020 military coup.
Former Malian Defense Minister Bah Ndaw was appointed interim president of Mali on September 21, 2020, by an electoral college. The list of the latter was drawn up through consultations between the military and representatives of the country's leading social and political movements. The president appointed former Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane as head of the country's transitional government by decree on September 27.
Leading political forces in Mali are extremely concerned about the situation in the country. The Association for Human Rights in Mali issued a statement on Tuesday describing the events as a coup d'état and a military seizure of power. "The second coup d'état in less than a year weakens the country and plunges it into an unprecedented crisis," the document stressed.
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Photo: MOHAMED MESSARA / EPA / TASS
Based on materials from TASS