Mali coup talks hit impasse over move to civilian rule

Bloomberg

West African leaders have made scant headway in their efforts to ensure Mali swiftly reverts to civilian rule after President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s ouster by a military junta.
Talks between the junta’s leaders and envoys from the Economic Community of West African States ended without resolving when the military will arrange elections or release Keita, who’s been in
captivity since his arrest on August 18. Regional heads
of state were expected to meet on Wednesday to chart a way forward.
“Our advice is that the transition doesn’t drag on,” Nigerien Foreign Minister Kalla Ankourao told Radio France Internationale. “We want a civilian at the helm of a transitional authority or at least a
retired army officer. They proposed two years this morning. We think this is too long.”
Further instability in Mali could be exploited by extremist insurgents in the north who’ve staged increasingly
violent attacks in the region, despite the presence of a 15,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force.
Keita, 75, dissolved his government and resigned under pressure from soldiers who detained him hours after staging a mutiny at an army barracks on the outskirts of Bamako, the capital.
Previous mediation efforts by Ecowas failed to resolve the impasse between Keita’s government and a popular protest movement that had demanded he step down in the weeks leading up to the military takeover.
The junta wants political parties, civil society, religious groups and the army to decide on the structure of any transitional government, spokesman Ismael Wague told closely held Horon TV.
“We won’t decide anything,” Wague said, denying reports that the junta plans to head the transition. “It is the Malians together who will decide.”
Ecowas has suspended Mali from all its decision-making structures. The regional bloc has also urged its other 14 member nations, which include Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Ghana, to
halt financial flows with Mali and shut shared land and air borders.
If the junta continues to insist on a two-year transition and fails to strike a compromise with Ecowas in the
coming days, it risks losing popular support as economic sanctions start to bite, said Kalilou Sidibe, a political science and law professor at the University of Bamako.
“The junta might have the people’s support at the moment, but its position remains fragile,” he said by phone. “The situation could destabilise. Another group or military faction could threaten the junta as we saw in 2012,” when soldiers threatened a counter-coup against army officers who had overthrown President Amadou Toumani Toure, Sidibe said.