Source : Sahel weather Novembre 2024 

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Following his remarks on November 16 at the rally of the M5 RFP movement, of which he is the pillar, in which he was said to have been left out of certain decisions such as the postponement of the election, even though he was still the head of government, Choguel Maïga has continued to criticize the leaders of Mali's transition. “The Prime Minister cannot learn from the media that the elections have been postponed without debate within the government”, he declared, in addition to having referred to possible receipts granted by Assimi Goïta to new pro-junta political parties (around a hundred), whereas he himself advocated a reduction in the number of parties during the last meetings. With this dismissal, could Choguel Maïga be signing the end of his political career, or who knows, a new leap towards other adventures? Four days after making these remarks, the Secretary General of the Presidency, Alfousseyni Diawara, announced on television that Choguel Maïga had been relieved of his duties and replaced by the former spokesman for the transitional government, General Abdoulaye Maïga.

In his address to the nation after his first cabinet meeting, Mali's new Prime Minister informed Malians that General Assimi Goïta had prepared a “framework document” with eight priorities. These include the organization of free and transparent elections - all the more so as the two-year deadline set by the junta expired in March 2024 - the improvement of sectors such as health and education, and the pursuit of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) agenda.
In doing so, a new government has been appointed in Mali, with eight ministers replaced, including Bintou Camara, former Minister of Energy, in addition to Choguel Maïga. It should be pointed out that the new government has a very different configuration from the previous one, insofar as the new Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga retains his post as Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization.

In addition to the political wrangling, judicial issues are also topical in Mali. While Al Hassan, the head of the Islamic police in Timbuktu, was sentenced by the ICC to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, six “terrorists” involved in the major attacks in Bamako on September 17, claimed by an Islamic group affiliated to Al Qaeda, were arrested. The information was made official by the Malian General Staff: “The individuals arrested are suspected of having facilitated the arrival and installation of the terrorist commandos who carried out the attacks, of having carried out surveillance missions of the sites to be attacked and of having provided logistical support to the armed terrorist groups”.

Meanwhile, Mali's High Authority for Communication (HAC) has decided to withdraw the license of the Malian channel Joliba TV News, after being asked to do so by Burkina Faso's media regulator, Issa Kaou N'Djimn, a Malian politician who criticized Burkina Faso's military rulers on the channel. Burkina Faso, along with Mali and Niger, has formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Within this framework, the three countries have decided, through their respective telecommunications regulatory agencies, to sign a protocol that will enable “free reception of calls and SMS” between the three countries. The protocol was signed by representatives of the three agencies, who met in Niamey to lift roaming charges between ESA mobile operators. 

In the same perspective, the ministers in charge of security from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso met in Bamako to “validate harmonized technical specifications for travel and identity documents (passports and national identity cards) in order to promote the free movement of people and goods in a dynamic of deeper integration”, according to a press release published on social networks. The harmonized documents will then be submitted to the Heads of State of the three countries for validation.
Meanwhile, relations between General Assimi Goïta and the mining companies present in Mali are no longer on the up-and-up, particularly with the arrest of the head of Resolute, followed by that of the executives of Barrik Gold, also a mining group present in the country. Despite the reassuring words of the CEO of Bartick Gold, the world's number-two gold miner, the transitional government seems, according to some observers, to want to make the mining companies present in Mali, one of Africa's leading gold producers, pack their bags.