The military junta in Mali wants a three-year transitional body, with military officers playing a prominent role.
Colonel Assimi Goita, the Malian military officer and leader of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, who led a coup that ousted elected President Boubacar Keita government last week, and others met a delegation of the Economic of West Africa States (ECOWAS) on Saturday in Bamako, Mali’s capital. The meeting lasted just 20 minutes.
Reports claim, the military junta has, however, agreed to release Keita, who has been in detention alongside other politicians since the coup, and move the erstwhile Prime Minister, Boubou Cisse, to a secure residence in the country.
Keita will also be allowed to travel abroad for medical treatment.
The military junta plan is set to bring a coalition with the opposition on one hand, and the leadership of the Economic of West Africa States [ECOWAS], which has zero tolerance for military rule, on the other.
The opposition coalition had led unrelenting protests against Boubacar Keita government before the military takeover.
“The junta has affirmed that it wants a three-year transition to review the foundations of the state. This transition will be directed by a body led by a soldier, who will also be head of state,” AFP quoted a source in the ECOWAS delegation in capital Bamako as saying.
“The government will be predominantly composed of soldiers” under the junta’s proposal, the source said on condition of anonymity.
News Central recalls that Colonel Assimi Goita, presented himself as the head of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) at a meeting with the Malian government’s top civil servants in Bamako on Wednesday.
“I am Colonel Assimi Goita, the president of the CNSP,” he told the press after appearing on national television on Tuesday night alongside other soldiers.
He considered that Mali was “in a situation of socio-political and security crisis” and had “no more right to make mistakes.”