President Macky Sall is going to Mali this Monday, August 15, 2022, 72 hours after the 49 Ivorian soldiers detained for more than a month were charged and imprisoned for “undermining state security”. Bamako thus sets the bar high for negotiating with Côte d’Ivoire openly accused in a case, which is incredible: an attempt at destabilization according to the military garrison of Kati, headquarters of the junta. A story sewn with white thread, according to experts who follow the file closely. Abidjan believes that these soldiers treated as “mercenaries” by Bamako are regularly registered in the workforce of the Ivorian army and were in Mali as part of the operations of the National Support Elements (NSE).
Beyond this judicial imbroglio, the visit of the current president of the African Union also comes after a series of tensions between the junta and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) which has been obliged since mid-July to comply with a new restrictive protocol of rotations and aerial reconnaissance missions.
Major countries like Germany want to cut back on what Western diplomats call “inconsistency”. These artificial tensions between Bamako and the UN are occurring while the terrorists are getting back on their feet, no longer hesitating to venture into the suburbs of Bamako or to attack the army in front. Thus, at the beginning of August, 42 soldiers were killed by the bullets of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM, JNIM in Arabic) in the area of the three borders (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger).
More seriously, on July 22, 2022, terrorists attacked the Kati military base, where the transitional president resides. This attack carried out 15 km from the Malian capital belies government communication based on a “lightning reconquest” of the territory with the active logistical support of Russia. In short, there are many points of friction between President Macky Sall, current president of the African Union, and the Malian junta. Starting with this firm demand for a return to constitutional order with the organization of free and democratic elections. As a reminder, on June 6, the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, signed a decree read on state television and reducing the transition to 24 months from March 26, 2022. The soldier thus renounces his 5-year transition project behind the ECOWAS sanctions. ECOWAS, which has frozen its sanctions, hopes for concrete action from the junta engaged in a kind of slow race to pass the baton to civilians and return to the barracks.
