Mali’s transitional president appoints new prime minister

Mali's interim President, Ba N'Daou, appointed former Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane as Prime Minister, in line with the conditions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to lift sanctions on the country. 

The appointment of Ouane - who is 64 and was Mali's ambassador to the United Nations from 1995 to 2002 and subsequently held the post of foreign minister until 2009 - was made official by a decree signed by N'Daou. Ouane is expected to form his government early next week to lead the 18-month transition. 

The appointment of a civilian as prime minister will mean the lifting of the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS on Mali after the coup d'état on August 18, as indicated last Friday by the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou.

N'Daou, a 70-year-old former defence minister, was sworn in as interim president last Friday before an ECOWAS representative, the head of the UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA), diplomats and civil society representatives. 

N'Daou's vice-president is a military man, Colonel Assimi Goita, who, for the month since the uprising, has headed the body set up by the coup leaders under the name of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP). 

ECOWAS, a regional organisation heavily involved in the transition in Mali, has demanded that both the president and the prime minister be civilians and that the transition should not exceed 18 months, as conditions for lifting the battery of economic and financial sanctions imposed on this country and activating its membership of the body, now frozen.