Mali: after the foiled coup attempt, Colonel Malick Diaw in the hot seat?
Colonel Malick Diaw.
(Illustration) © AFP - ANNIE RISEMBERG
Text by: David Baché
3 mins
Monday, May 16, the Malian authorities announced that they had foiled a coup attempt.
Among the officers arrested, the most senior is Lieutenant-Colonel Amadou Keïta.
Also a member of the CNT, he is considered close to Colonel Malick Diaw, one of the five pillars of the August 2020 coup. Since then, speculation has been rife.
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Malick Diaw is one of the five pillars of the August 2020 coup, led alongside
Assimi Goïta
.
Then first vice-president of the junta of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), Malick Diaw is today president of the National Transitional Council (CNT) of Mali, which acts as a legislative assembly pending future elections. .
If the CNT officially denounced the
coup attempt
carried out on the night of May 11 to 12 and called for its perpetrators to be identified and brought to justice, many noticed that it was not Malick Diaw who signed the statement.
“
The president signs the declarations and the secretary general signs the press releases
” we justify to the CNT.
The fact remains that, from the Malian political class to social networks,
the arrest of Lieutenant-Colonel Amadou Keïta
, presented as one of his relatives, has revived rumors about possible divisions and clan games within power.
Is Malick Diaw indirectly targeted?
Would he himself be involved in the foiled putsch attempt?
Anonymous messages have circulated widely, reporting a summons from Malick Diaw to the presidency or his upcoming arrest.
Several figures in Malian politics, speaking on condition of anonymity, believe they know that Malick Diaw has been in conflict for several months with other members of the ruling junta, starting with the head of state, Colonel Assimi Goïta himself.
In question: his intelligence, his sense of strategy, his less radicalism vis-à-vis international partners, and above all his supposed presidential ambitions.
Colonel Malick Diaw, September 5, 2020. (Illustration) AFP - MICHELE CATTANI
We also remember the virulence with which
Malick Diaw had challenged Prime Minister Choguel Maïga
, last month, before the CNT: was it a real pressure, revealing divisions within the apparatus of state, or on the contrary in a theatrical way to allow the head of government to defend his record?
The readings always diverge.
Rumors of an imminent ousting of the president of the CNT have, in any case, led his supporters to react: "
lies and slander
", says on Twitter the first parliamentary secretary of the CNT, Amadou Albert Maïga, who took a photo of himself with Malick Diaw and reassures: “
No problem at the top of the state.
»
A CNT official adds to RFI: “
It's nonsense.
Malick Diaw and Lieutenant-Colonel Keïta were not so close.
Those who want to destabilize the regime have long sought to weaken the colonels, but their union is strong.
They know each other and have bonds of friendship.
»
Gathered in plenary Thursday, May 19, the members of the CNT gave a standing ovation to Malick Diaw.
Which ironically took the opportunity to "
thank his detractors
" and hammer, military salute in support, that he would never betray.
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