Pascal Arogorn Ibe
Rebel troops who have taken power in Mali
said on Thursday “a transitional president”
would be appointed from either civilian or
military ranks.
“We are going to set in place a transitional
council, with a transitional president who is
going to be either military or civilian,” Junta
spokesman Ismael Wague told TV channel
France 24.
“We are in contact with civil society,
opposition parties, the majority, everyone, to
try to set the transition in place.”
Wague said: “It is going to be a transition
which will be the shortest possible. You’re not
talking about 2023, 2022. (We have) to
complete this transition as quickly as possible,
and then we go back to doing something
different.
“I can’t tell you when we are going to hand
over power to civilians, because the transition
has first to be put in place.”
The rebels have called the junta the National
Committee for the Salvation of the People,
headed by army colonel Assimi Goita.
On Tuesday, the mutineers overthrew
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was
elected in 2018 for a second term and still had
three years left to run.
Mali President Keita, Prime Minister Boubou
Cisse and other top officials are still being
detained and their release is a key demand of
Mali’s neighbouring countries as well as the
African Union, European Union, the United
States and UN.
The 75-year-old president made a television
appearance in the early hours of Wednesday in
which he announced his resignation and the
dissolution of government, asking: “Do I really
have a choice?”
“(I must) submit to it, because I don’t want
any bloodshed,” Keita said.
When asked about Keita’s quote, Wague said:
“He didn’t have a choice because he didn’t
see how the people were suffering. That
doesn’t mean that he didn’t have a choice
because he had a gun pressed against the
side of his head.”
The spokesman said problems had been
accumulating and this affected the military,
which is struggling with a jihadist insurgency.
“Soldiers were no longer able to carry out their
core missions,” he said.
Wague refused to be drawn on Keita’s fate.
“It’s not for us to decide, (it’s) for the judicial
system,” he said.
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