May 26, 2021 11:35 am
When the military arrest the president and prime minister of a country and deprive them of their functions, it can be called a coup. But if the officials in question had in turn come to power through a coup, the matter becomes more complicated.
The situation is all the more complex if we consider that the arrest and exhaustion of President Bah N’Daw and his Prime Minister Moctar Ouane was announced by Colonel Assimi Goïta, the head of the junta that overthrew the civilian president in August. of 2020. The fault of N’Daw and Ouane is that of having ousted two soldiers from key roles within the government.
Officially Goïta had renounced the presidency for the benefit of N’Daw to respond to the demands of the countries of the region, which demanded a transition to democracy. But the facts confirmed what everyone knew and that will remain unchanged regardless of the next developments: the coup leaders have always retained power.
A bigger picture
The behind the scenes would not matter much if Mali were not located in the Sahel, a region destabilized by the presence of various jihadist groups. This is why the argument was raised at the European summit in Brussels, where French President Emmanuel Macron, on behalf of the twenty-seven member countries, defined the coup as “unacceptable”, threatening Mali with sanctions.
One of the root causes of the destabilization of this part of Africa is the inability of states to assume their role and to protect, develop and involve all regions and all components of society.
Seven years after the French intervention that saved Bamako from a jihadist column, and at a time when more than five thousand French soldiers and other European contingents are still present in the region, France reiterates that it will be impossible to win the war until African states do not. they will do their part, both in the military and civilian fields.
Three of the five Sahel countries that France helps in the war against the jihadists are extremely unstable
The repeated twists and turns at the top of the Malian state must be read in the context of a wider and more regional instability. Over the past few months in Niger there has been an attempted coup against the newly elected president. Idriss Déby, president of Chad, died in combat during the offensive of a column of rebels arrived from Libya, and was replaced at the head of the country by his son, in a dynastic succession that surprised many observers.
Three of the five countries of the G5 Sahel, the coalition of states that France helps in the war against the jihadists, are in a state of extreme instability.
This situation considerably weakens the anti-jihadist strategy, which officially should include a progressive handover from France to African armies and states. Unfortunately, any abrupt deviation from the program postpones this rotation, which appears more and more a chimera.
It is difficult not to ask questions about the causes of this chronic instability and the nature of the states inherited from colonialism, unable to find a balance.
In April, the Coalition citoyenne pour le Sahel, which brings together associations and representatives of civil society from the Sahel, published an alarming report on the number of civilians who died in the conflict, at the hands of jihadists but also, in inadmissible proportions, by the national armed forces. and their allied militias. The coalition called on governments to change their approach to better protect civilians and to resolve what it called “the government crisis in the Sahel”.
Two coups d’etat in the span of a few months in Mali highlight how important these recommendations are, especially in Paris, where there is fear of sinking into a situation with no way out.
(Translation by Andrea Sparacino)
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