First attempt at transition consultation in Mali fails

Finding a resolution for Mali will still have to wait. The first attempt by the military junta to set up a consultation for the transition of power after a group of soldiers took power in Bamako on 18 August and deposed President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has been postponed.

In a communiqué issued by the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), the body set up by the coup plotters, they explained that the meeting had been postponed without giving a snowy date "for organisational reasons".

The military had promised to hand over power to the Malian people as the last step in an indefinite transition, and several political parties and civil society organisations had been invited to this meeting. But among these guests was not the 5 June Movement (M5-RFP). 

The movement has been one of the main actors in the struggle against the previous regime and openly supported the struggle. This non-invitation has angered the members of the M5-RFP and they have accused the military junta of "confiscating" the change. Prior to this dispute, cleric Mahmoud Dicko, a key figure and member of the M5-RFP movement, accused the military of not taking into account those who should be involved in the transition and warned them that they would not have "carte blanche". The spokesman of the movement, Issa Kaou Djim, said that "people are beginning to doubt" the junta and that "a revolution cannot be confiscated by a group of soldiers".

Keita won his second term in the 2018 elections, but since June he has faced major demonstrations over corruption, mismanagement of the economy and disputed legislative elections.

Plans for the transition have not been made public, but in initial talks with envoys from the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) earlier this week they suggested a three-year transition, according to Efe.

The ECOWAS held a virtual summit of its heads of state in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, at which they demanded that the CNSP make a transition of no more than a year and that the governing body during this transition be made up of civilians rather than the military; and, furthermore, that these civilians withdraw after the transition and cannot take part in the future elections. 

The Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sabri Boukadoum, announced last Friday his intention to work with the new CNSP in Mali. According to a communiqué published by Efe, Boukadoum expressed his willingness to ally with Mali and to collaborate so that these weeks of doubt would be redirected to a peaceful transition process.

The Algerian minister met with the military coup leaders in Bamako in a meeting that was described as "an opportunity to reiterate the commitment to the effective implementation of a lasting solution to the crisis in Mali". 

The note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its gratitude and from the CNSP expressed "its desire to be supported in its efforts to move towards a consensual solution to the crisis as soon as possible".

Boukadoum also met with the special representative of the United Nations secretary general and head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Mission for Stabilisation in Mali (MINUSMA) and with the head of the African Union Mission for the Sahel (MISAHEL), Pierre Buyoya, with whom he analysed "the current situation in Mali, as well as the ways and means of supporting this neighbouring and brotherly country and helping it to overcome the challenges of the moment".