Mali

Mali's constitutional court on Friday declared Assimi Goita, the colonel who led a military coup this week while serving as vice president, to be the new interim president.

Mali's interim president and premier have been released, a military official said Thursday, three days after they were detained and stripped of their powers in what appeared to be the country's second coup in nine months.

The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss the derailing of Mali’s transitional government following the apparent forced departure of both the President and Prime Minister on Tuesday, by the leader of last August’s military coup.

For the second time in nine months, Col Assimi Goïta has seized power in Mali, detaining transitional President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane after accusing them of failing in their duties and trying to sabotage the West African state's transition to democracy. He also led the coup which deposed the elected head of state, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, on 18 August last year.

Despite a deteriorating security situation and the reverberating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, regional troops deployed to combat terrorists in Africa’s Sahel region have scaled up the tempo of their operations in recent months, efforts that must be matched by a spirit of solidarity among their global partners, the senior UN peacekeeping official told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

Mali’s interim government is set to form a new “broad-based” cabinet amid growing criticism of the army-dominated authorities in the Sahel state. Prime Minister Moctar Ouane resigned on Friday but was immediately reappointed to carry out the reshuffle, transitional president Bah Ndaw said.

At the United Nations Security Council, and in other forums in Africa and Europe, diplomats are debating different options for increasing international support to the Group of Five Sahel (G5 Sahel) Force. The aim is to enhance its operational capacity and effectiveness in an effort to restore stability in the Sahel. Despite the presence of the UN Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the G5 Sahel Force, and French and European Union missions, the security situation in the Sahel has significantly deteriorated over the last few years.

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Three United Nations peacekeepers have been seriously wounded in a rocket attack on a military base in northern Mali, UN and local officials said.

The death of Chad's President Idriss Deby could be a major setback for counterterrorism efforts in Africa's restive Sahel region, according to Chadian activists, African politicians and security experts.