Mali’s ruling military body on Monday said it has decided to delay a return to civilian rule until March 2024 following double coups, reported TRT World.
A decree signed by Mali’s military leader Colonel Assimi Goita and read out on state television on Monday said that the duration of the transition has been fixed at 24 months, starting from March 26, 2022.
Notably, Mali has seen two military coups since August 2020, when the military ousted elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. A second de-facto coup occurred in May 2021, when strongman Goita pushed out an interim civilian government and took over the presidency.
Mali’s military rulers had promised to return power to civilians by February 2022 but subsequently delayed the timetable, prompting sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
On Monday, the military said the decree followed an advanced stage of negotiations with ECOWAS and Mali hoped sanctions would be lifted.
“The adoption of this decree is proof of the willingness of [Malian] authorities to dialogue with ECOWAS,” the transitional government spokesman Abdoulaye Maiga said on national television while reading the decree.
The military leaders had previously proposed a five-year election timeline that was later revised to two. The length of the transition has also caused a rift between Mali and ECOWAS as well as with its partners including the United States and former colonial power, France.
The West African bloc’s leaders met in Ghana’s capital Accra over the weekend to discuss the situation and agreed not to lift sanctions, which include border closures and restrictions on financial transactions unless Mali’s interim leaders proposed a shorter transition.
Maiga said both the ECOWAS mediator on the crisis, former Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan, and heads of state had been informed of the 24-month decree.
“We are hopeful… the sanctions will be lifted imminently,” he said, adding that an electoral timeline would follow.
The ECOWAS leaders are expected to convene for another summit before July 3.
