This release comes less than two months after the CNSP’s military coup, the junta that brought down President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. Yet it was under the old regime that the negotiations were actively launched, but the moment of effective liberation necessarily favors the current strong men in Mali.
The release of Soumaïla Cissé in Mali had become a national, transpartisan, unifying cause. While this is clearly not the primary goal, the associated political gain is indisputable. But to whom can this success be attributed?
“The new authorities” thanked
Soumaïla Cissé herself thanked in her first public statements “the new authorities” as a result of the military coup led by the CNSP on 18 August. The leader of the Malian opposition, finally free, pays homage to the “speed” with which they are committed to his release.
But members of his own party in the crisis unit who worked for his release also remember the involvement of the former regime. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta was still in power when negotiations with the kidnappers began. In June last year, an attempt is even very close to success, and IBK promises a little too soon that Soumaïla Cissé will be released “soon Inch’Allah”. This attempt fails. The next, implemented, this week is successful. The dangers of this type of delicate and unsafe operation.
What rewards?
Did the CNSP have access to certain counterparts that the former president refused? Unless it is the attitude of international partners that has changed, the behavior of intermediaries or the demands of the kidnappers themselves? In any case, in the light of public opinion, victory always belongs to those who can hold it in their hands.
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