The powerful man of Malian power, Colonel and Vice President Assimi Goïta, returned on Tuesday in a statement on the reasons why the army arrested the president and prime minister. But what do we know about the reasons for this coup? Was the Vice President right to make such a decision and what does it reveal about the Malian transition? To talk about it, our guest is Bréma Ely Dicko, a sociologist and anthropologist from Mali. He is also an adviser to the Prime Minister who has been deposited. He answers Laurent Correau’s questions.
Rfi: Why did the announcement of a new government on Monday lead to the army carrying out this coup?
BremaEly Dicko: The reason is that there are two big names in the coup on August 18 who failed in the government’s appeal, which was replaced by two other brigade generals. Colonel Sadio Camara and Colonel Modibo Sidibé were replaced and this frustrated some of the army, especially the National Guard. These soldiers mobilized the other colleagues who carried out the coup, and finally they challenged the Prime Minister, then the president of the transition.
But how do you explain that the President and the Prime Minister wanted to make changes in the positions of defense and security by including ministers who are not emblematic figures in the junta?
I am not in the secret of the higher administration, but in any case there was a desire to build a government that was generally open, an inclusive and representative government, a government that was easier to control. Because if you always have the tenors’ tenors, it is ultimately difficult to impose instructions on them.
Would you suddenly say that the Prime Minister and the President were trying to test their room for maneuver within this transition?
You can say that. One might think that they might want to take back the hand of having a government that they control more, a government that can implement the binding reforms for the success of the transition and for Mali’s stability.
If we now take the military’s point of view, how do you explain that they took the risk of pointing out the international community at this time by arresting President Bah Ndaw and his Prime Minister Moctar Ouane?
Until evidence to the contrary, everything went well between the Prime Minister, the Transitional President and the soldiers who carried out the coup on 18 August 2020. Now it is true that the social situation was not enviable. M5 started to appear and he had a schedule that was quite full, with mass activities planned, press conferences. So some mobilization was planned, like last year. Maybe the junta was a little afraid of being further weakened. For them, it was perhaps easier to work to regain control on their side as well.
This is for the national context. After recently, in Chad, we have seen that the constitution has been violatedand almost all called those who came to power. So we told ourselves that maybe we could do the same thing in Mali.
Is there a link between what happened in Chad, namely a conciliatory attitude of the international community towards the junta and what has just happened in Mali?
For me Yes. As young people in both cases have the responsibility, so we told ourselves that we in Mali could do the same.
When the Vice President’s Vice President in a press release declares that he placed the President and his Prime Minister outside their powers, I quote: “to preserve the transitional charter and defend the republic”. Is there an article in the transitional charter that authorizes him to do this?
The Charter, published in the Official Journal of the European Union, makes the Vice-President only someone responsible for national security and defense. So in no case can he replace the president of the transition, because in the first version of the charter it was possible to replace him. ECOWAS had insisted that this compensation clause be removed. This means that he himself, by making this decision, violates the charter and ultimately takes risks to ECOWAS, which could impose an embargo on Mali. With an economy that is already being tested by strike by the main union centerthen of uncertainty and everything we have known for the last ten years.
And how do we react in Mali? Is public opinion divided on this issue?
In general, there is still some dismay, because we say to ourselves that it is a perpetual restart in Mali. Every time: rebelotte, with the same actor, we no longer know which way to turn. At one point on August 18, many Malians believed that the military would do the trick. Nine months later, the situation has not really changed, because the fight against corruption has not changed. It is not known until it was found guilty, who ordered the killing of the M5 protesters, arrested on 10-11 and 12 July. Mali’s stability at present is still a slogan. People are watching what the international community will do, especially ECOWAS.
Does not the act that has just been taken ultimately play to revelation by showing that this transition is subject to the goodwill of the military?
Right from the start, you had a military-assisted civilian transition. So we’re going from a military-assisted civilian transition to a military transition. If ECOWAS allows what is happening to be approved, it means that we open the door to other experiences in other neighboring countries and it also means that we abandon Mali and the Malians.
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