In the news: controversies and questions after the appointment of Bah N'Daw

Audio 04:31

Malian transitional president Bah N'Daw when he was Minister of Defense, May 28, 2014. HABIBOU KOUYATE / AFP

By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

9 min

Publicity

The appointment of the retired colonel-major to the post of president of the transition in Mali provoked many reactions in the Malian political world as well as in the press.

The online daily

Malikilé

thus considers that the soldiers “ 

have broken their oath to work in concert with the M5-RFP and all the forces of the Malian Nation.

Indeed,

says the newspaper,

many voices were raised to denounce the unilateral manner in which the president and the vice-president were appointed to lead the 18-month Transition as decided by the National Consultations.

By this act, the CNSP expresses its thinly veiled will to take power, all power.

[…] And it is now the clash between the M5-RFP and the CNSP,

points out

Malikilé, which does not bode well as Goodluck Jonathan arrives in Bamako on Wednesday to inquire about the junta's consideration of ECOWAS recommendations in the implementation of the Transition bodies.

 "

Indeed, notes

L'Indépendant

, “ 

the ECOWAS, which had made the lifting of the embargo conditional on the appointment of a civilian president and prime minister, has not yet reacted to the appointment of Bah N'Daw. .

Its mediator in the Malian crisis, Goodluck Jonathan, is therefore expected this Wednesday in Bamako to assess the situation on the ground.

 "

A civilian prime minister

?

In the meantime, continues

L'Indépendant

, the junta has decided to reach out to the M5-RFP: " 

The CNSP indeed approached the strategic committee of the protest movement yesterday,"

says the newspaper

, "to offer to provide it with a list of three personalities to fill the post of Prime Minister for the transitional period.

This measure clearly aims,

according to the newspaper

, to calm the anger of the M5-RFP which therefore claims to have not been associated with the appointment of the president of the transition.

 "

The Independent

who still believes that “ 

the new government should be put in place no later than next Monday, September 28 and that it should not exceed 25 members, in accordance with the Transition Charter.

 "

We are therefore moving towards a transitional power-sharing with a military president and vice-president and a civilian prime minister ... For

the Informant

, another Bamako publication, “ 

it clearly appears that in order to establish the conditions for a refoundation transition state, the CNSP wanted to have the greatest possible margin of freedom vis-à-vis political chapels.

Opponents of the late regime are to a large extent considered (by the military) as the trustees of yesterday's bankruptcy, to be put in the same basket as the former presidential movement.

 "

In any case, continues

The Informer

, " 

the pillars of the executive put in place, it will be necessary that the opponents of yesterday find shoes to their feet: to find the personality who will occupy the post of Prime Minister and quickly form a government dedicated to strengthening security throughout the national territory, promoting good governance, launching the work of political and institutional reforms, adopting a social stability pact and organizing 'free and transparent general elections.

 "

Towards a lifting of sanctions

?

It remains to know the position of ECOWAS.

Will she lift the sanctions?

Because time is running out, the Malian economy is in peril, as

Jeune Afrique

notes

: " 

Public finances and trade are hard hit

," points out the pan-African weekly.

Thus, the turnover of the trade marks a decline of 16.7

% against 1.1

% for the market services, less affected.

[…] "If the sanctions persist, Mali is heading for economic catastrophe", underlines the Senegalese economist and former vice-president of ECOWAS, Abdoulaye Fall, and "I think, he continues, that the military understood this ".

Given that the supply of goods passes through the ports of Dakar, Abidjan and Lomé, the closing of the borders will very quickly suffocate the economy, already severely disrupted.

 "

Finally, for

Le Monde Afrique

, a breakthrough is possible.

According to good sources, financial sanctions and border closures for non-essential products could be lifted quickly

," the newspaper said.

These measures have already cost Mali a point of GDP, according to an expert, but they also have negative effects on transit in the ports of Abidjan, in Côte d'Ivoire, and Dakar, in Senegal.

"It should pass,"

hopes a diplomat

, while the ECOWAS mediators are therefore expected this Wednesday in Bamako

.

"

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