Malian putschists postpone transition conference

The Malian putschists who took power in Bamako last week and overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his government have postponed the conference planned this Saturday in Bamako and which was called to "organise the transition".

The National Committee for the People's Salvation (CNSP), a body created by the military coup leaders, issued a short statement in which it explained that the meeting was postponed to a later date (not specified) "for organisational reasons".

The communiqué added that it hoped "to have the good understanding of all the invited participants", which included political parties of all tendencies, as well as the National Council of Civil Society and the Forum of Civil Society Organizations and the movements that signed the Algiers Agreements.

The conference was already charged with controversy because the opposition movement 5 June Movement (M5-RFP), one of the key political actors in the struggle against the previous regime and which openly supported the coup, was not among those invited by the CNSP in its call on Friday, which motivated its protests.

The coup leaders have not yet publicly stated what their plans are for the transition, but in their first talks with envoys from the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) earlier this week they suggested a three-year transition.

However, on Friday ECOWAS held a virtual summit of its heads of state in Abuja 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; they furthermore demanded that these civilians withdraw after the transition and be prevented from taking part in future elections.