Mali’s transitional leader, Assimi Goita, on Monday at the Koulouba Palace, had a long conversation with his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall, who is also the current Chairman of the African Union (AU).
President Sall began a mini-tour of Africa on Monday 15 August. Before flying to Ndjamena, Chad and Libreville, Gabon, he made a stopover for a few hours in the Malian capital where he was received by the president of the transition, Colonel Assimi Goita.
At the Koulouba Palace, the two men discussed several subjects including the burning issue of the 49 Ivorian soldiers who have been detained for over a month in Bamako. On Friday, August 12, the Malian judiciary charged them with “attempting to undermine state security” and “plotting against the government” before placing them under a detention order.
Abidjan is demanding their release, although it has assured them that its soldiers were on a mission to provide logistical support to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
The Senegalese head of state, after his tête-à-tête with Assimi Goita, did not mention this case in his press report. But several sources indicate that it was at the heart of the discussions.
“I thank President Assimi Goita for his friendly welcome. We exchanged on topics of common interest relating to the transition process in Mali and bilateral cooperation between our two countries linked by history, neighborhood and the community space of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States),” Macky Sall said on social networks.
According to Senegal’s National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD), nearly 23 percent of Senegal’s exports are destined for Mali. Several actors in the Dakar-Bamako corridor had suffered from the ECOWAS embargo, which lasted about six months. Today, the two countries want to turn the page since, with Macky Sall, Assimi Goita said he “agreed to strengthen cooperation.”
Noting that the transition has made “progress after some hitches” linked to the ECOWAS sanctions the successor of the Congo’s Felix Tshisekedi to the presidency of the African Union (AU) now urges an “accompaniment for Mali in this path for the return to a normal constitutional order within the timeframe provided in accordance with the commitments of the authorities.”
Finally, Macky Sall believes that “the entire international community, led by our continent, has an obligation to support Mali in order to put an end to the multidimensional crisis it is going through.”
ODL/id/fss/abj/APA