Former Vice President of Mali’s Transitional National Council (CNT), Issa Kaou N’Djim has regained his freedom after his release on November 13, 2025.
He was serving a one-year prison sentence for remarks deemed critical of the Burkinabe government.
N’Djim had been imprisoned since November 2024, following accusations of “insulting a foreign head of state” and “using an information system to spread offensive statements.”
His conviction stemmed from comments made during a television program in which he accused certain members of Burkina Faso’s military government of “manipulating coup attempts and acts of destabilisation.”
The remarks provoked outrage in Bamako and led to his arrest and subsequent sentencing to two years in prison, with one year suspended.
This was not his first run-in with the law. In December 2021, N’Djim had already been handed a six-month suspended sentence for “undermining the credit of the state.”
Once a prominent political figure, N’Djim rose to prominence as spokesperson for Imam Mahmoud Dicko during the mass protests that led to the downfall of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in 2020.
His later decision to back Mali’s transitional authorities earned him the vice-presidency of the CNT, but his influence waned after a series of controversial statements, particularly regarding regional politics and relations with Burkina Faso.
MD/ac/lb/as/APA