Moctar Ouane, Mali PM reinstated to form new government

Mali’s Prime Minister Moctar Ouane had resigned on May 14, 2021, but was reinstated immediately to form a ‘broad-based' cabinet of Mali’s interim government, informed the office of interim President Bah N’Daw.

The Prime Minister has just begun with consultations, informed an advisor to the interim President.

Ouane was made Prime Minister of Mali in September 2020 after the elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced his resignation in August 2020 after Keita and his then Prime Minister Boubou Cisse were reportedly arrested by the mutiny soldiers.

Amid the threat of international sanctions, the military handed power to a caretaker government during September-October. The caretaker government announced that it will reform the constitution in October 2021 and stage elections in February 2022.

Republic of Mali:

•Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is the seventh-largest country in Africa. The capital of Mali is Bamako.

•Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa. Earlier, it was ruled by France. It gained independence in 1960.

•Mali is experiencing an economic disturbance due to corruption and a political crisis due to disputed legislative elections.

•Mali has been struggling to end the Islamist insurgency that first broke out in Northern Mali in 2012.

Military Mutiny in Mali:

Mali’s military coup in 2012 was led by military officers who were frustrated with the then government’s way of handling the Tuareg insurgency in Northern Mali. In March 2012, President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted over his handling of the insurgency.

During the same year, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta was elected as President of Mali and re-elected in 2018. However, Keita, along with his Prime Minister Cisse, was arrested in 2020 by the mutiny soldiers which led to his resignation.

Neither elections nor military interventions have been able to stabilize Mali or put an end to years of insurgency.

International partners have worked on huge frameworks to stabilize Mali, like:

•France leads the regional counter-insurgency operations with the G5 Sahel.

•The UN’s Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in 2013 was mandated to assist G5 Sahel to protect the civilians and stabilize Mali.

Mali has also signed and ratified various key international conventions such as:

•The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC),

•The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC),

•The African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption,

•The African Charter on the Values of Public Service and Administration,

•The African Charter on the Values and Principles of Decentralisation, Local Governance, and Local Development