Former president of Mali Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, in Nouakchott on July 1, 2020. -

Ludovic Marin / AP / SIPA

The soldiers who took power in Mali managed to get rid of a cumbersome symbol.

The country's ex-president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, left Bamako on Saturday evening for treatment in the United Arab Emirates, more than two weeks after his overthrow by a junta which opened consultations on the transition the same day.

Conditions not disclosed

The ex-president's family confirmed the information, indicating that "he was authorized to leave with two people to Abu Dhabi" on a plane sent by the Emirates.

"We have indeed for humanitarian reasons accepted his departure but on conditions," declared, without further details, an official of the junta which overthrew President IBK on August 18.

This departure for treatment abroad, had been mentioned shortly after the fall of the former president.

He clarified at the beginning of the week following, according to his doctors, a short stroke for which IKB was hospitalized Tuesday in a clinic in Bamako that he left Thursday.

A junta under pressure

The military, however, does not have a completely free hand.

Under pressure from the international community, and in particular from West African neighbors, the junta on Saturday opened consultations on the transition, which are to continue until September 12.

“We are entering a new history of our country.

This crucial step requires deep reflection and the involvement of all the nation's daughters and sons, ”said Malick Diaw, number two of the“ National Committee for the Salvation of the People ”(CNSP ) set up by the coup plotters.

No representative of the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), the former Tuareg-dominated rebellion, signatory to the 2015 peace agreement, was however present.

In a press release, the CMA judges that "the confidence-building measures necessary to build a partnership for shared responsibilities do not seem to be topical".

The CMA "cannot endorse any process without participatory and consensual consultations".

Nevertheless, French President Emmanuel Macron called on Saturday "for the immediate establishment of a civil political transition in Mali (...) a sine qua non for an effective fight against terrorists".

The junta promised a transition to civil power.

But the form and duration of this transition, two areas of friction with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which has imposed sanctions on the new military leaders, have not yet been determined.

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  • ECOWAS

  • Military junta

  • Mali

  • World

  • Rebellion

  • West Africa