Investiture day for Colonel Goïta, who will settle at the head of Mali

Published on : 06/07/2021 – 09:59Modified : 06/07/2021 – 10:04

The investiture ceremony of Assimi Goïta as head of Mali is to be held on Monday, June 7 from 10 a.m. (GMT and local) at the Bamako International Conference Center (CICB). It comes as France and the country’s other partners are asking the military for guarantees that a new civilian prime minister will be appointed and that elections will take place in February 2022 with a view to bringing civilians back to power.

The investiture of Assimi Goïta, a 37-year-old officer, “will be the moment for him to reassure and solemnly make clear commitments on the course of the remaining eight months of the transition,” said a diplomat stationed in Bamako having requested anonymity.

If the appointment of a new prime minister seems imminent, Colonel Goïta could be content to say that the elections will take place “in the course of” next year, which risks angering the international community, according to observers.

Western embassies have generally decided to send for the investiture a “collaborator” rather than an ambassador, which constitutes a “political signal” but is “neither a boycott, nor a sanction”, according to the diplomatic source.

Choquel Kokalla Maïga approached Prime Minister

Mali, a crucial country for the stability of the Sahel, has just been the scene of two coups in nine months on the part of Assimi Goïta and his group of colonels.

During the first, the officers overthrew on August 18, 2020 President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, weakened by the protest led for months by the Mouvement du 5-Juin / Rassemblement des forces patriotiques (M5 / RFP), a collective of opponents, religious members of civil society.

The junta then committed, under international pressure, to a transition period limited to 18 months and led by civilians.

On May 24, Colonel Goïta, who remained the real strong man, trampled on this commitment by arresting the President and the Transitional Prime Minister, two civilians. The officer has since been declared president of the transition by the Constitutional Court.

For Mali, whose forces lack the resources, maintaining international partnerships is a crucial issue.

The one who holds the rope to access the post of Prime Minister, Choguel Kokalla Maïga, a veteran of politics from the ranks of the M5, tried to reassure on Friday by promising that his country would keep its international commitments. But the 63-year-old former minister also warned that “invectives, sanctions, threats will only complicate the situation.”

Suspension of French operations in Mali

Scared by the new coup, France announced the suspension of its joint operations with the Malian army, after eight years of close cooperation against the jihadists.

Until further notice, its Barkhane force, which operates in several countries of the Sahel, will no longer leave its bases for operations on the ground in Mali, even if it will continue to strike, if the opportunity arises, jihadist leaders.

However, the situation in the Barkhane action zone remains worrying.

In Mali, at least 11 members of a Tuareg community were killed Thursday by unknown people near Ménaka (northeast).

Neighboring Burkina Faso, for its part, suffered on the night of Friday to Saturday the deadliest attack carried out by suspected jihadists since 2015. The appalling death toll stands at at least 160 dead, according to local sources.

The Malian soldiers are also working to reassure the former independence rebels from the North, united in the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), signatory of a peace agreement in 2015.

After expressing reluctance, its leaders said they were ready to support this new chapter of the transition and several of them are expected to take office.

With AFP