Mali’s Interim President Bah Ndaw on Monday appointed a 25-member government as the country begins an 18-month transition back to civilian rule, reported Reuters.
The development comes following a coup on Aug. 18 that deposed President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Keïta’s resignation was following massive mass protests by the June 5 Movement, consisting of a coalition of opposition politicians, religious leaders, and civil society groups, over his failure to end the violence or to drag the country out of a grinding economic and institutional crisis.
In an announcement read out on state television on Monday, the president’s secretary-general Sekou Traore said that the ministries of defence, territorial administration, security and national reconciliation will be headed by military personnel. Civilians will hold 21 other posts.
Last month, Mali’s military junta appointed retired colonel Bah Ndaw as interim president and Colonel Assimi Goita, who led the coup, as vice president. Veteran diplomat Moctar Ouane has been named interim prime minister.
One of the junta’s leaders, Colonel Sadio Camara, has been appointed as the defence minister, while Colonel Modibo Kone has been allotted the security and civil protection portfolio. Former Attorney General Mohamed Sidda Dicko is introduced as the New Justice Minister and the junta spokesman Colonel Ismael Wague has been made the national reconciliation minister.
It is expected that the resumption of a functioning government will persuade Mali’s neighboring countries to lift sanctions imposed on the country since the coup that have adversely affected the agricultural, landlocked economy, which relies heavily on imports. The sanctions include a ban on commercial trade and financial flows.
It currently remains unclear if and when the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will lift the sanctions. The bloc had closed borders to Mali and stopped financial flows to put pressure on the junta to quickly return to a civilian government.
