Keita concedes again, new government talks continue

Mali: Keita concedes again, new government talks continue

By Tasie Theodore

Mali’s ousted President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has once again conceded that he is prepared to take himself out of the picture even as talks to put in place a new government continue in the Sahelian nation.

According to sources close to the negotiating team, the former President has accepted to no longer continue in office as part of the process of restoring normalcy in the West African nation.

Recall that the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS had insisted that Keita be returned to office by the Malian military that had taken him into custody and been in charge of the country since Tuesday.

The coup had come at the head of months of street protests following disputed parliamentary polls that Keita’s ruling party had been alleged to have manipulated.

ECOWAS had waded into the fray but had been unable to resolve the matter before the military stepped in.

Sources say that there however remain disagreements over the composition of the transitional government that the military is leading the process of putting together. One challenge, it is said has to do with a tendency to have the government to be a military-dominated one. A second challenge has to do with disagreements between civilian political actors in this very sharply divided nation.