A five-year transition period. This is what the military junta in power in Mali wants. The Malian authorities, as they had committed, sent their proposal, on December 31, 2021, to Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, whose country holds the current presidency of the Economic Community of African States. West (Cédéao).
In a press release dated January 1, 2022, the sub-regional organization decided to devote an extraordinary summit to the political situation prevailing in Mali on January 9, and its mediator should visit Bamako on the 5th. The schedule submitted by the junta is a new obstacle to a rapid return to constitutional order since the coup in August 2020. This is at least the feeling of several political parties who did not participate in the recent national meetings supposed to be the framework of reference “recovery” from Mali. But they did not set the duration of the transition, a political emergency for the country.
The National Refoundation Conference (ANR), “the Rendezvous for a new Mali”, which took place from December 11 to 30, 2021, were the opportunity to “heated debates” according to the Malian press. This national consultation, described by the president of the transition Assimi Goïta as “a democratic exercise”, only recommended a range for the transition period: between six months and five years. “In accordance with the recommendations resulting from the National Conference of the refoundation, the government will very soon put in place a timetable aimed at ensuring the return to a peaceful and secure constitutional order”, had promised on December 30 the Malian leader by closing the work of the assizes.
The military junta finally decided by offering the equivalent of a presidential mandate to ECOWAS. Asked by the Malian public television (ORTM) at the end of his audience with the Ghanaian president, the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdoulaye Diop indicated that it was for a period of five years. “at most”. He also specified that Malian political leaders remained “open” and “available” for “continue discussions” with ECOWAS.
However, several political formations, united within the Cadre of exchange of parties and political groups for a successful transition, rejected via a press release “this unilateral and unreasonable timing” which prolongs “the transition for a cumulative duration of six years and six months “. “The executive informs national and international opinion that this chronogram transmitted by Colonel Assimi Goïta, president of the transition and head of state, to the (ECOWAS), apart from violating the Transition Charter, has not been discussed in Mali and can in no way be a deep aspiration of the Malian people “. The coalition had already boycotted the ANRs so that “the transition period is not linked to the Assises”, had explained to AFP Sékou Niamé Bathily, communication officer of the “Exchange framework”, before adding: “We want to dissociate them to go to the rapid organization of the elections. “
It is for the moment a wasted effort. Especially since Colonel Goïta had sent them as a warning at the close of Seated. “Those of our compatriots who, for one reason or another, have dissociated themselves from this national process must now understand that the safeguard of the nation is a civic duty which is imposed on us all”, did he declare.
Today, the Exchange Framework “reserves the right to use all legal means so that the democratic principles obtained through a long struggle and at the cost of many sacrifices are not liquidated by any attempt to confiscate power by force and cunning”.
It is not only the Malian opposition that is upset by the junta’s decision. By proposing a five-year transition, the Malian authorities are ignoring the ECOWAS wish to see Bamako “respect the date of February 27, 2022 for the holding of the elections”, as specified in the final press release of the extraordinary summit of December 12. The sub-regional organization, which called itself “concerned about the slowness of preparations for the election”, had decided “to maintain the sanctions already imposed”. She also indicated that “if by the end of December 2021, no concrete progress (was) carried out in preparation for the election, additional sanctions (would be) implemented from January 1, 2022 “. They would include in particular “economic and financial sanctions”. Colonel Goïta nevertheless wishes “that the brother countries of ECOWAS support Mali more in carrying out actions supporting the forthcoming organization of elections “.
The ECOWAS had also shown itself “concerned” through “the risk for the region of the intervention of private security companies in Mali”. A concern that she shares with France and the European Union. As for the United States, which is on the same wavelength as its Western allies, the case of Mali has been decided. Washington confirmed on January 1, 2022 the exclusion of Mali, like Guinea (which also experienced a coup d’état) and Ethiopia (at war), from the African Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA) which allows several African countries to be exempt from customs duties when they export to the United States.