The military government that took power in Mali wants a military transitional body to rule the country for three years and has agreed to release Deputy President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a source in a visit by West African delegation said on Sunday.
“The junta has confirmed that it wants a three-year transition to test the foundations of the Malian state. This transition will be directed by a body led by a soldier, who will also be head of state,” a source in the ECOWAS delegation in capital Bamako told the AFP news agency.
“The government will also consist mainly of soldiers” under the proposal of the military government, the source said on condition of anonymity.
Leaders of the military government led by Colonel Assimi Goita and mediators of ECOWAS, the regional bloc of West Africa, led by the former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, met all day behind closed doors on Sunday and must return Monday. discussions go.
“We have been able to agree on a number of points, but not yet on all the discussions,” Jonathan told reporters on Sunday night after about nine hours of negotiations.
A spokesman for the military government, Colonel Ismael Wague, said: “We have reached a compromise on certain aspects and the negotiations will continue tomorrow.”
Still gave details about what problems they had in common, and what the excellent problems were.
The AFP source said the military government had agreed to “free President Keita”, who has been detained along with other political leaders since the coup on Tuesday, and he “will be able to return to his home” in Bamako.
“And if he wants to travel abroad after treatment, that’s not a problem,” the ECOWAS source said.
Prime Minister Boubou Cisse, who is being held with 75-year-old Keita at a military base outside the capital where the coup began, would be relocated to a safe haven in the city, the source said.
A military government official confirmed to AFP the decisions on the fate of Keita and Cisse, as well as that “the three-year transition would have a military president and a government mostly composed of soldiers”.
Popular dissatisfaction
The coup followed months of protests calling for Keita to be fired as public discontent with the government grew over the country’s brutal uprising and collapsing economy.
While it met with international condemnation, thousands of opposition supporters carried out the removal of the president in the streets of Bamako.
The military government has said it has “completed” the work of the Protestants and has promised to hold elections “within a reasonable time”.
However, the Economic Community of 15 Nations of West African States (ECOWAS), tired of prolonged instability in Mali and the potential for similar power grabs in the region, has taken a hard line on the coup.
Suspending Mali from its decision-making institutions, closing borders and stopping financial flows with the country.
Tuesday’s coup was Mali’s second in eight years, and has raised concerns about regional stability amid months of political unrest following a disputed March election.
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