Mali: dissolution of the CNSP, President N'Daw received at the Élysée
Assimi Goita, president of the National Council for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) in Mali, during the ECOWAS summit in Accra, September 15, 2020. Nipah Dennis / AFP
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6 min
The National Committee of Salvation for the People (CNSP), an organ created by the putschist military on August 18 in Mali, is officially dissolved.
This is indicated by a decree signed in particular by the transitional president and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had only recently urged the dissolution of this body which strengthened the power of the military.
Even if this dissolution is an event, the military has not completely disappeared.
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With our correspondent in Bamako,
Serge Daniel
The CNSP is now officially dissolved, but its main military officials have neither returned to the camps nor unemployed.
For example, the ex-president of the CNSP, Colonel Assimi Goïta, already occupies the post of vice-president of the Transition, he is number 2 in the regime.
The former vice-chairman of the dissolved committee, Colonel Malick Diaw, is already at the head of the National Transitional Council, a legislative body.
Other big names of the ex-junta have for a while been occupying sovereign positions within the government.
Despite everything, the dissolution of the CNSP is an event.
Diplomatic pressure from ECOWAS has yielded results.
Then, Kati, a garrison town located near Bamako and a stronghold of the ex-junta will be less and less a popular direction.
Moreover, politicians here now hope to have more elbow room with the military.
And if everything works as planned, we take a turn for the return of civilians to power.
The members of the National Transitional Council are currently working on the texts which should lead to transparent elections.
It remains to involve in this work a large part of the Malian political class not represented in the CNT.
This dissolution, insisted on by ECOWAS, takes place the day before President Bah N'Daw's visit to Paris (see box).
How does the opposition react to this announcement?
The military junta must loosen its grip on institutions.
we are not reassured about their way of doing things.
Today, citizens are kidnapped, are prevented from demonstrating, are arrested, are kidnapped.
And that is the work of the military junta.
Choguel Maiga, President of the M5-RFP Strategic Committee: "The Malians are asking a lot of questions"
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President N'Daw in Paris, a strong signal sent by France
The G5 Sahel summit will take place in three weeks, on February 15 and 16, in N'Djamena.
To prepare for this meeting, Emmanuel Macron has been receiving his Sahelian counterparts since mid-January.
After Idriss Déby last week, it is Bah N'Daw, the transitional president of Mali, to be received this Wednesday at the Elysee.
This unexpected visit is a strong signal sent by France to the new Malian authorities.
It was accompanied by part of his cabinet and his Minister of Foreign Affairs that the Malian transitional president landed in Paris yesterday.
Bah N'Daw will be received at the Élysée at the beginning of the afternoon for a working lunch with Emmanuel Macron.
An interview that is in line with the meetings with Presidents Ghazouani, Issoufou and Déby, we minimize in the entourage of the French president.
Except that this visit is not so trivial.
This is the first time that Bah N'Daw will be received by the president of a country outside ECOWAS.
The Élysée even decided for the occasion to open the courtyard of the presidential palace to the press and to formalize its arrival with a press release.
By welcoming him with many respects, Paris thus offers a kind of international recognition to a president who has been propelled to the head of Malian power by a military junta.
Were there any Bamako commitments in exchange?
The Malian authorities announced last night the dissolution of the CNSP, the body formed by the military which overthrew Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last August.
It was a request from ECOWAS.
Earlier this week, a ministerial delegation went to Kidal to relaunch the Algiers peace accords.
However, Paris has been campaigning for years for their rapid implementation.
Something certainly to satisfy France on the eve of this visit.
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