In what amounts to a second coup for the troubled West African county in nine months, Mali’s interim president, Bah N’Daw and prime minister, Moctar Ouane have resigned following their arrest by the military.
This development was contained a statement from Baba Cissé, an aide to the country’s vice president and de facto military leader Colonel Assimi Goita.
Goita, who led the coup that toppled then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last October, said he removed N’Daw and Ouane because they neglected to advise him about a cabinet reshuffle that left out two members of the military, a move he said violated the agreement that created the civilian transitional government.
It should be noted that Messrs Ndaw and Ouane were on the verge of returning Mali to civil rule after the military struck the West African country in a coup in August.
Using weeks of demonstrations over perceived government corruption and handling of the ravaging insurgency as cover, young military officers led by Assimi Goïta, a colonel at the time, had ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
The president would later resign, despite international calls on the military to hand power back to the civilians.
The military later bowed to international pressure to set up an interim government that was to oversee a transition to civil rule by next March.
Still, the junta held key positions in the government much to the pertubation of opposition leaders and many citizens. Goïta made himself the deputy president.
Yet again, nine months into the transition process, Goïta and his army of soldiers struck. It was gathered that this followed a cabinet reshuffle that had two military officers replaced amidst lingering labour strikes in the landlocked country.
It is important to note that Mali has been in turmoil since then-President Amadou Toumani Touré was toppled in a military coup in 2012 that led ethnic Tuareg rebels to seize control of several northern towns, which were then taken over by Islamist insurgents. France deployed forces to repel the insurgents the following year, but the rebels have continued to operate in rural areas.
