The spokesman for the military junta which overthrew Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta on Tuesday promised in an interview with France 24 news channel the establishment of "a transitional president".
"We are going to set up a transitional council with a transitional president who will be either a soldier or a civilian," Colonel-Major Ismaël Wagué said. We are in contact with civil society, the opposition parties, the majority, everyone, to try to put in place the transition ”.
"It will be a transition which will be as short as possible", he added, while the second term of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta was due to end in 2023. It is "not a story of 2023, 2022 ”, continued the colonel-major, we must“ finish this transition as quickly as possible and we will return to something else ”.
"I cannot tell you when we are going to transfer power to civilians because we have to put in place the transition", continued the Malian high-ranking official, one of the figures of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) who currently runs the country. He denied that President Keïta, who said he had no other choice, resigned under duress.
"Part of the population was suffering"
“He had no choice because he himself saw how people were suffering. That does not mean that he had no choice because we had aimed weapons at his temples, ”assured the colonel-major. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced that he was leaving his post on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, while he was in the hands of the putschists.
Ismaël Wagué once again justified the intervention of the military by the existence of a "blockage at the country level" for a long time. “Part of the population was suffering. Even at the defense level, there were a lot of dysfunctions in the army. The soldiers were no longer able to carry out their sovereign missions ”.
“The level of corruption was too high. I tell you clearly, I prefer to avoid the word coup d'etat because it is not one, ”he continued. As for the fate of the former Malian leader, “it is not for us to decide. (It's up to) the judicial system to decide. It is not our job ”.
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The colonel major also declared that the CNSP "has no connection with the M5", the protest movement, made up of religious leaders, civil society and politicians, which has been demanding since June the resignation of President Keïta. and who welcomed the intervention of the army.