After a second military coup in nine months, the African Union (AU) decided to suspend Mali again.
The AU resolution comes a few days after the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) announced the suspension of Mali from its institutions.
In its declaration, the AU asked for the military “to return to the barracks quickly and without condition and to stop further interference with Mali’s political processes.”
It warned about “imposing targeted sanctions and other punitive measures” if the military did not transfer authority to civilian transitional leaders.
Colonel Assimi Goita, Mali’s new president, seized power by deposing and forcing the President and Prime Minister to resign, a move that regional bloc leaders condemned as violating mediation procedures.
In nine months, the Sahelian country has experienced two coups.
On 18 August 2020, after several months of protest, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, known as the “IBK,” accused of corruption, was toppled by a coup.
Mali was then suspended by the AU. But the continental organization, following a transition to civil administration within 18 months, lifted the decision in early October.
On April 15, 2021, the transitional authorities scheduled dates for presidential and legislative elections in February and March 2022.
But in May, the military, unsatisfied with the re-organization of the government determined in response to rising protests, detained President and Prime Minister Bah Ndaw and Moctar Ouane and took them to the military camp in Kati, near Bamako.
Colonel Assimi Goïta, was declared by the Constitutional Court a leader in the current political crisis, the Head of State and interim President. Goïta promised the elections were scheduled to take place in 2022.
At the time of the forthcoming elections, the AU called on all the present leaders, in its communique, to lift the ‘restrictions’ on all political actors, including Ndaw and Ouane, currently under house arrest.
It also announced that an evaluation expedition will soon be organized in Mali.
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