Investiture day in Mali, the junta still in discussion with ECOWAS

Colonel Assimi Goïta (L) next to former officer Bah N'Daw (D) who is to be made president of the transition this Friday, September 25 in Bamako.

REUTERS / Amadou Keita

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

The new interim president, the retired officer Bah N'Daw, is to be sworn in on Friday, September 25, as well as the new vice-president Colonel Assimi Goïta, head of the junta that overthrew ex-president IBK.

A double investiture therefore, in a particular context, a little more than a month after the coup, and while the ECOWAS has not yet lifted the sanctions that have since weighed on Mali.

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With our correspondent and our special correspondent in Bamako

,

and

Except surprise, no African head of state should make the trip to attend the ceremony.

" 

explains a diplomat,

."

Thursday evening, the " 

 " on this subject were still in progress.

It is therefore a “

 ”

ceremony 

which is announced.

Sign that the climate has improved all the same,

, Goodluck Jonathan, arrived two days ago in Bamako, confirmed his participation.

European ambassadors stationed in the Malian capital should also be present.

This inauguration marks an important stage: it is supposed to mark the beginning of a transition period which should last 18 months and eventually lead to new elections.

But in the immediate future, it opens above all the way to the appointment of the Prime Minister, still awaited.

It is indeed up to the president of the transition, once he has been sworn in, to appoint him.

Yet this is one of the main conditions set by ECOWAS to

.

" 

 ", confided an African diplomat Thursday evening.

This would allow the ECOWAS to decide on the sanctions before the departure of Goodluck Jonathan, in the afternoon.

But Thursday evening, several sources did not exclude that it would take a few more days to know the name of the new head of government of the transition.

And besides the question of the Prime Minister, the final version of the transition charter is also a sensitive element.

On this point, for example, observers are in a hurry to see, in the document, which has been amended several times, the powers granted to the president and his vice-president.

Before leaving Bamako, the delegation of the sub-regional institution should once again meet the new authorities for " 

".

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