In the spotlight: Assimi Goïta's second putsch

Audio 03:19

Assimi Goïta, the Malian vice-president.

Photo taken on August 22, 2020 in Bamako.

© ANNIE RISEMBERG AFP

By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

8 mins

Publicity

Colonel Assimi Goïta, who already fell from IBK nine months ago, has therefore just brought down the president of the transition Bah N'Daw and his Prime Minister, Moctar Ouane.

Although officially vice-president, the colonel was and remains the strong man of the country.

Indeed, exclaims

L'Informateu

r in Bamako, “ 

Bah N'Daw, Moctar Ouane and Colonel Assimi Goïta, who decides?

Everything suggests that the first two should refrain from walking on the latter's flowerbeds: namely defense and security.

Bah N'Daw and Moctar Ouane, who ignored it, learned it the hard way

.

"

Arm wrestling to the advantage of the colonels

Indeed, reveals

Jeune Afrique

, everything happened last Sunday, “ 

when Assimi Goïta, accompanied by a few relatives, invited himself to the Koulouba palace. Furious at having been excluded from the formation of the new government, which was then underway, Goïta intends to protest against the sidelining in the future team of two influential members of the ex-CNSP, Colonels Modibo Koné and Sadio Camara. (…) But the tug-of-war turns into confrontation. President Bah N'Daw decides to ignore the threats and refuses to comply with Assimi Goïta's demands. The next day, the second transitional government is unveiled, in which Colonels Modibo Koné and Sadio Camara are indeed replaced by generals. At Assimi Goïta, the amazement is total,

still relates

JA.

The colonel cannot lose face: he decides to act.

A few minutes later, Moctar Ouane then sees soldiers from the National Guard, a body led by Sadio Camara and Modibo Koné, disembark at his home.

 "

A dispute over Russia?

However, the ex-junta would have had other reasons to foment this new putsch.

We come back to

L'Informateur

 à Bamako, which specifies that a dispute between the transitional government and the putschist military over Russia.

The latter intended to order arms from Moscow.

But the president of the transition and his prime minister were against and would have sent documents on this subject to Paris.

A betrayal for the ex-junta.

Ledjely

 in Guinea completes the trail: " 

since the coup d'état of August 18, 2020, we have pointed to a rather suspicious proximity between Russia and the main leaders of the putsch," says the Guinean site.

“It seems indeed that the two colonels dismissed from the Ministries of Security and Defense were pro-Russian.

»Thus, their sidelining would have been perceived by the putschists as remote-controlled by Paris.

And

Ledjely

to wonder: 

"

will Mali be after the Central African Republic, the new field of expression of the rivalry between Russia and France on African soil?"

 "

Mali, gateway for the “ 

Popov

 ” to the Sahel?

Today 

in Burkina Faso also evokes the Russian track.

“ 

The 2 officers dismissed from the government, Modibo Koné and Sadio Camara, are pro-Russians, trained by the Black Sea, while Generals Mamdou Lamine Ballo and Souleymane Doucouré who have taken their places are Francophiles.

 "

And the Ouagadougou daily wondered: "Does 

this mean that the Russians and the French are fighting in Mali via the officers of the Malian army?"

We know that the "Popovs" have gained a foothold in South Africa, Egypt, the Central African Republic, but not too much in the Sahel.

So, would Mali be the gateway for the Russians to the region?

 "

When will Mali be born again?

Be that as it may, nine months after the coup d'état of last August, " 

the birth of the new Mali is very difficult,

 " sighs the

Maliweb

site

.

“ 

The birth of the new Mali is a gamble whose path is strewn with pitfalls.

"

And

"

the challenges for new strong men are many.

On the one hand, they will have to cooperate with the international community, ECOWAS, the political class as well as the leaders of the M5-RFP.

On the other hand too, with the various trade union movements, in particular the National Union of Workers of Mali.

 "

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