August 2020 – Page 2 – Cameroon Concord News
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Facing a national moment fraught with racial turmoil and a deadly pandemic, President Donald Trump accepted his party’s renomination on a massive White House South Lawn stage Thursday night, boasting of helping African Americans and defying his own administration’s pandemic guidelines to address a tightly packed, largely maskless crowd.

As troubles churned outside the gates, Trump painted an optimistic vision of America’s future, including an eventual triumph over the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 175,000 people, left millions unemployed and rewritten the rules of society. But that brighter horizon can only be secured, Trump asserted, if he defeats Democrat Joe Biden.

“We have spent the last four years reversing the damage Joe Biden inflicted over the last 47 years,” Trump said.

Presenting himself as the last barrier protecting an American way of life under siege from radical forces, Trump declared that “Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice.””

“So tonight, I ask you a very simple question: How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?” Trump said. “In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just, and exceptional nation on earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins.”

As his speech brought the scaled-back Republican National Convention to a close, Trump’s incendiary rhetoric risked inflaming a divided nation reeling from a series of calamities, including the pandemic, a major hurricane that slammed into the Gulf Coast and nights of racial unrest and violence after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot by a White Wisconsin police officer.

He was introduced by his daughter Ivanka, an influential White House adviser, who portrayed the famously bombastic Trump as someone who has shaken up Washington with little record for norms or niceties.

“Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real. And I respect you for being effective,” she said.

The president spoke from a setting that was both familiar and controversial. Despite tradition and regulation to not use the White House for purely political events, a huge stage was set up outside the executive mansion, dwarfing the trappings for some of the most important moments of past presidencies. The speaker’s stand was flanked by dozens of American flags and two big video screens.

Trying to run as an insurgent as well as incumbent, Trump rarely includes calls for unity, even in a time of national uncertainty. He has repeatedly, if not always effectively, tried to portray Biden — who is considered a moderate Democrat — as a tool of the radical left, fringe forces he has claimed don’t love their country.

The Republicans claim that the violence that has erupted in Kenosha and some other American cities is to be blamed on Democratic governors and mayors. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday said that Americans wouldn’t be safe in “Joe Biden’s America.”

That drew a stern rebuke from his predecessor in the post.

“The problem we have right now is that we are in Donald Trump’s America,” said Biden on MSNBC. “He views this as a political benefit to him, he is rooting for more violence not less. He is pouring gasoline on the fire.”

Both parties are watching with uncertainty the developments in Wisconsin and cities across the nation with Republicans leaning hard on support for law and order — with no words offered for Black victims of police violence — while falsely claiming that Biden has not condemned the lawlessness. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney and New York City’s former mayor, declared that Democrats’ “silence was so deafening that it reveals an acceptance of this violence because they will accept anything they hope will defeat President Donald Trump.”

Though some of the speakers, unlike on previous nights, offered notes of sympathy to the families of Black men killed by police, Giuliani also took aim at the Black Lives Matter movement, suggesting that it, along with ANTIFA, was part of the extremist voices pushing Biden to “execute their pro-criminal, anti-police policies” and had “hijacked the protests into vicious, brutal riots.”

Along with Biden, running mate Kamala Harris offered counter-programming for Trump’s prime-time speech. She delivered a speech a half mile from the White House, declaring, “Donald Trump has failed at the most basic and important job of a president of the United States: He failed to protect the American people, plain and simple.”

Some demonstrations took to Washington’s streets Thursday night, ahead of a march planned for the next day. New fencing set up along the White House perimeter was to keep the protesters at bay, but some of their shouts and car horns were clearly audible on the South Lawn where more than 1,500 people gathered. Soon after Trump began talking, the horns and sirens — which came through occasionally to the millions watching at home — caused some people in the last row to turn around and look for the source of the disturbance.

Those chants, coming from masked faces, intruded on another illusion that the Republicans have spent a week trying to create: that the pandemic is largely a thing of the past. The rows of chairs on the lawn were tightly packed, inches apart. Protective masks were not required, and Covid-19 tests were not to be administered to everyone.

But Trump, who has defended his handling of the pandemic, touted an expansion of rapid coronavirus testing. The White House announced Thursday that it had struck a $750 million deal to acquire 150 million tests from Abbott Laboratories to be deployed in nursing homes, schools and other areas with populations at high risk.

Most of the convention has been aimed at former Trump supporters or nonvoters, and has tried to drive up negative impressions of Biden so that some of his possible backers stay home. Many of the messages were aimed squarely at seniors and suburban women.

Among the more emotional moments: testimony from Alice Marie Johnson, who was granted clemency from her life sentence on nonviolent drug charges, and from Carl and Marsha Mueller, whose daughter Kayla was killed while being held in Syria by Islamic State militants during the Obama administration.

“Kayla should be here,” said Carl Mueller. “If Donald Trump was president when Kayla was captured, she would be here today.”

Four years ago, Trump declared in his acceptance speech that “I alone can fix” the nation’s woes, but he has found himself asking voters for another term at the nadir of his presidency, amid a devastating pandemic, crushing unemployment and real uncertainties about schools and businesses reopening.

Another one million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, in numbers released Thursday. And the US economy shrank at an alarming annual rate of 31.7% during the April-June quarter as it struggled under the weight of the viral pandemic. It was sharpest quarterly drop on record.

(AP)

West African countries on Friday demanded an immediate civilian transition in Mali and elections within 12 months as they considered sanctions after rebel troops toppled the country’s president and seized power.

The demands were spelt out after the new junta released ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, seized in the August 18 coup, but also apparently granted their new chief the powers of head of state.

The coup shocked Mali’s West African neighbours and ally France, heightening worries over instability in a country already struggling with an Islamist insurgency, ethnic violence and economic stagnation.

After a video summit, the 15-nation Economic Community of West Africa State called on the junta “to initiate a civil transition immediately” and the “rapid establishment of a government to (…) prepare the legislative and presidential elections within 12 months.”

In a closing statement, Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, who also chairs ECOWAS, said sanctions would be “gradually lifted depending on the implementation” of the bloc’s requests.

“Staging coups is a serious sickness for a country,” he said in earlier remarks. “To cure them, there’s only one prescription: sanctions.”

ECOWAS slapped sanctions on Mali after the August coup, including a closure of borders and ban on trade and financial flows.

It demanded the release of Keita and other detained leaders and insisted on a swift return to civilian rule.

Keita, 75, was elected in 2013 as a unifying figure in a fractured country and was returned in 2018 for a second five-year term.

But his popularity crashed as he failed to counter the country’s raging jihadist insurgency and brake Mali’s downward economic spiral.

After an escalating series of mass protests, young army officers mutinied on August 18, seizing Keita and other leaders and declaring they now governed the country.

They have called the junta the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), led by a 37-year-old colonel, Assimi Goita.

Friday’s video summit came after a three-day ECOWAS visit foundered over a timetable for civilian transition, and the junta’s announcement on the eve of the conference that Keita had been freed.

Issoufou said Keita had told the ECOWAS envoys “that he resigned quite freely, convinced that this decision was necessary for peace and stability in Mali.”

Handover issue

Within hours of taking control, the junta promised to enact a political transition and stage elections within a “reasonable time.”

According to the chief ECOWAS envoy, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, the coup leaders wanted a three-year handover period.

This was rejected by the ECOWAS team, which called for an interim government, “headed by a civilian or retired military officer, to last for six or nine months, and maximum of 12 calendar months,” Jonathan said on Wednesday.

ECOWAS on Friday said that the person overseeing the handover should be “an individual, civilian, recognised… for their intellectual and moral standing” and that there should be a “civilian prime minister.”

“No military structure should be above the transition president,” it said.

But a new document posted on Mali’s Official Journal, a gazette which publishes new laws and regulations, invests the head of the CNSP with the powers of the head of state.

Named “Basic Act N°001/CNSP,” the document was posted online on Thursday.

The CNSP “designates a president who assures the duty of the head of state… embodying national unity… and guaranteeing national independence, territorial integrity… (and) respect for international agreements,” it says.

This individual appoints senior civil servants and military and “accredits” foreign ambassadors, according to the document. AFP has asked the junta’s spokesman to confirm its authenticity.

Jihadist warning

In other remarks, Issoufou lashed the Malian military for launching the coup when the country was in the throes of an eight-year-old jihadist insurgency.

Thousands of lives have been lost, hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes and swathes of the country have been abandoned to armed Islamists by the state.

The junta “is refusing to return to the barracks at a time when, more than ever, the army is required to focus on its traditional mission,” Issoufou said.

He warned that the jihadists sought to “exploit the current institutional void” — a scenario that happened after Mali’s last coup in 2008.

(AFP)

“Mr. Tassang had crossed the reddest of the red lines. He should have understood that while in prison with other people, he is supposed to work for the group’s solidarity and not to tear the group apart. He might think he is raising issues that need to be addressed, but he is also failing to understand that he is shooting the group in the foot. As a teacher, he should have understood that in the circumstances in which he finds himself, unity of purpose is a fortune in affliction,” says Dr. Joachim Arrey, a Canada-based translator and technical writer in this soul searching interview with Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon Concord News: You recently sent a message to Mr. Wilfred Tassang which many people truly appreciated. What really prompted you to write to him?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain a few things about my response to Mr. Tassang, who through his letters has been arrogating to himself the status of a saint and a speaker of the truth. His last letter to the President of Southern Cameroons, Sisisku Julius Ayuk Tabe, wherein he raised a number of issues which I found to be so trivial was one letter too many, especially in the context in which the country finds itself. I understand that when people are working together, there are bound to be differences, especially differences of opinion, but I hold that when I work with other people, there are differences that could be overlooked in the interest of the group’s unity and interest. It is hard to find a very united and well-oiled team, but that does not imply that the group’s dirty linen must be washed in public. In my view, Mr. Tassang had crossed the reddest of the red lines. He should have understood that while in prison with other people, he is supposed to work for the group’s solidarity and not to tear the group apart. He might think he is raising issues that need to be addressed, but he is also failing to understand that he is shooting the group in the foot. As a teacher, he should have understood that in the circumstances in which he finds himself, unity of purpose is a fortune in affliction. His failure to understand this simple philosophy was actually what prompted me to respond to one of his many write-ups that do not really make a lot of sense to me.

Cameroon Concord News: But some people hold that your disagreement is more ideological?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Mr. Tassang believes in the total independence of Southern Cameroons. He has a right to his opinion and there are many Southern Cameroonians who think like him and will not bulge an inch. Like the government, they are frozen in their positions and this attitude is what is feeding the rebellion and carnage that are taking place in the country’s two English-speaking regions. I respect Mr. Tassang and his view, but this does not imply that he is beyond reproach. I hold that the parties involved in the fighting back home could meet each other halfway through constructive and purposeful dialogue. I clearly stand for federalism and I think this system of government could help the country address those issues that triggered the disagreement and fighting.

What all Southern Cameroonians agree on is the fact that they have faced marginalization for more than five decades and they want it to stop so that future generations do not face the same issues. I must recall here and now that if there are more than three million Southern Cameroonians out of the country, it is because of the systemic and institutional marginalization that has robbed the people of Southern Cameroons of so many opportunities. However, this can be addressed if the government and those who are calling for total independence demonstrate exceptional flexibility. But with people like Mr. Tassang frozen in their positions, it will be hard for genuine peace to return to our own part of the country.

In his letter to President Julius Ayuk Tabe, he clearly stated that Barristers Paul Ayah and Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla were not fit to negotiate for the people of Southern Cameroons because of their moderate stance, but he fails to understand that those two barristers have much to offer because of their sound knowledge of legal justice and their involvement in the struggle. There won’t be a better negotiator than a lawyer. Furthermore, Mr. Tassang like the Yaounde government holds that victory will be obtained in the battlefield. I think he is simply oblivious of the reality on the ground. His knowledge of history is either inadequate or it is failing him. No war has ever ended without talks and negotiations. The Treaty of Versailles sanctioned the end of the First World War while the Yalta and Potsdam agreements remain in history as those negotiations that ended the Second World war.

Talking and negotiating to end a conflict are as old as man. Mandela negotiated to bring about racial parity in South Africa. Colonial Africa had to negotiate to end colonialism. Why does Mr. Tassang hold that talking with the Yaounde government is tantamount to treason? Why would he chide those who had accepted an invitation for talks with the government when he knows that without talks, the current situation in Southern Cameroons which is close to an apocalypse will linger for a long time? When a man invites you, go and listen to him. You will surely have your turn to talk and you will tell him how you feel and why you do not buy their perspective of things. If you turn down the invitation due to anger or inflexibility, then your point of view will never be known and that could be used against you. A reasonable person will not want to go down in history like someone who lacked foresight and a vision. That is where I disagree with Mr. Tassang, but we agree that we are all victims of the government’s marginalization policy.

Cameroon Concord News: But even after the informal meeting and the international community’s pressure, the killing has continued, and many people are still fleeing the region.

Dr Joachim Arrey: I am indeed unhappy about the way things are playing out in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Right from the beginning, I was against any armed conflict because such conflicts easily start but linger for a long time. The government had an opportunity to avoid such a catastrophe in our country, but it opted for violence. Southern Cameroonian fighters, for their part, felt they had a right to self-defense, and this has left the country in the grip of Kafkaesque violence that has already consumed more than 5,000 lives and reduced many villages to ashes. What the government and Southern Cameroonian fighters thought would be a walk in the park has turned out to be Sisyphean task. There is no end in sight, especially as both parties are stuck in their positions. The mindset must change, and all Cameroonians have to work and pray to bring about sustainable peace in our country. I have been seeing pictures of Southern Cameroonian fighters killing soldiers and there are also pictures of soldiers killing innocent civilians. It is even alleged that soldiers now arrest civilians just to make a fortune out of them, especially after the ministerial order banning the purchase of machetes without authorization from a senior divisional officer. I do not know how residents of those two regions will be going about life, especially as 80% of them are farmer and machetes are part and parcel of their lives. I believe that there is a better way to do things. Both parties should be open to dialogue so that the local population can go about its business without fear.

Cameroon Concord News: You have written a lot about this conflict, but we are not seeing an improvement. Do you think your writing is having any impact on the parties involved?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thanks for acknowledging my peaceful role in efforts at seeking a lasting solution to the Southern Cameroons conflict. As a writer, my primary role is to make both parties see the mess they are creating in their country. I have always stated that fighting and destruction will not address any issues. I believe in talks and if we can talk, we will spare so many lives. This is not the time to demonstrate that we are tough. History has no respect for people who believe in destroying the lives of others. History has a good place for people who turn to seek solutions and that is why people like Mandela, Koffi Attah Annan, Bishop Desmond Tutu, etc will always be remembered. While they oppose oppression in any form, they hold that oppression, no matter how hard, could be defeated at the negotiating table. Apartheid was defeated at the negotiating table and not in the battlefield. South Sudan gained its independence at the negotiating table and not necessarily in the battlefield. Canada addressed its issues with Quebec at the negotiating table and not on the streets. Southern Cameroonians can learn from Quebecers and the Canadian government. Like Canada, we can have one country, two systems where each linguistic group uses its culture to address its problems. Federalism has never threatened Canadian unity. It has only made Canada the envy of the world. The Yaounde government and Southern Cameroonian fighters should use the Canadian example to bring peace to Cameroon.

Cameroon Concord News: I have always asked you this question and you have always been evasive. When will you return to Cameroon to put your vast experience at the service of your people?

Dr Joachim Arrey: Thanks for asking this question. As I have always said, when it comes to human resources, Cameroon has more than enough. I might be experienced, but I hold that my place is in my native Ossing where I can positively impact many lives. I would let others do the politics while I watch them from the sidelines. I could carry out an analysis of their actions and publish for the public to gain a better understanding and maybe draw its conclusion. Spectators could also influence players and I want to be that spectator who holds sway over players through writing. That is my role as a writer, and I love it. Thanks indeed for recognizing that I have the experience that can help others. I will however take it to my native Ossing where I can help the farmers to be better and encourage kids to go to school. I will certainly go back, but that is if the fighting ends.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you for your time!

One might suppose the coronavirus pandemic has given African leaders an opportunity to rethink their approach to governance. This particularly holds true for Cameroon, which appears to have suffered the brunt of the virus in Central Africa, registering close to half of all 1 025 fatalities in Central Africa as of Monday. By this same date, the country had 18 762 confirmed cases, surpassing its neighbours Chad, Congo, the Central African Republic and Gabon combined.

But with the coronavirus, the more things seem to have changed, the more they seem to have remained the same. Despite the free lessons offered by the pandemic, Cameroonian officials appear not to have learned to build on public trust to better prepare for future crises like the climate crisis, which is slowly grinding, but devastating in its effects.

For any response to a crisis of the magnitude and complexity of the coronavirus to succeed, it will largely depend on the contribution and collaboration of the masses. President Paul Biya, 87, presumably understands this, which is why, when he managed to address his compatriots on the coronavirus for the first time on May 19, he called on them to remain united, supportive and disciplined.

“I, therefore, call on Cameroonians to have trust in public authorities,” Biya said. But Biya himself has not earned the trust he is requiring of citizens; because of that, the country’s citizens have not made “a lot of effort” to fight Covid-19, as he implored them to.

As part of measures to contain the coronavirus in Cameroon, the government made the wearing of face masks in public mandatory; limited gatherings to 50 people; and closed all land, air and sea borders. But the president has, on several occasions, appeared in public without a mask. Other public authorities, such as MPs, have flouted the restriction on gatherings, and the country’s airspace was opened to Air France to run commercial passenger flights from France — a high-risk country at the time.

Such behaviour by public authorities during a pandemic nips public trust in the bud. It means people are less likely to trust the same public officials asking them to make sacrifices by giving up certain rights and privileges for the sake of the nation.

It is, therefore, not surprising to see Cameroonians ignoring the preventive measures put in place by public authorities. Many citizens have become carefree. They no longer put on face masks in public, nor observe the hygiene and physical distancing measures set out by the government. The outcome is that the contagion keeps rising and there are no indications when the curve will flatten. Manaouda Malachie, the minister of public health, recently warned of a second wave of the coronavirus in the country if strong action is not taken.

In future, this lack of public trust is going to frustrate responses to potential crises, should the tide not be reversed. People who mistrust their leaders in ordinary times can’t trust them one bit in extraordinary times.

In addition, the government has not been proactive in shining a light on the management of resources contributed by the public to help fight the coronavirus, putting its transparency in handling the pandemic in question.

In July, some citizens took to social media to question the whereabouts of about 4 000 bags of rice that had been donated in March by Orca, a home goods retail store. It was only then that the minister of public health communicated information about the donation. Yet the minister only shifted the burden of clarification from himself to the 10 regional governors: he said the bags of rice had been dispatched to the regions for further distribution. How or whether the bags of rice got to the intended beneficiaries is still unclear.

The health minister also offered an explanation of how about 21-billion CFA francs ($38-million) of funds designated for the Covid-19 response had been spent only a few days after an opposition MP raised an alarm over suspicions of corruption. Jean-Michel Nintcheu of the Social Democratic Front had expressed concerns that the money — contributed by the public through a national solidarity fund — had been subject to corruption, citing overbilling and conflicts of interests within the public health ministry and among its officials.

Cameroon has a longstanding problem of corruption. It has emerged as the world’s most-corrupt country on two occasions, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. Systematic corruption continues to be a problem. It would have, therefore, been surprising if the coronavirus didn’t come up against the all-pervasive corruption in the country.

The public health minister created a commission to investigate corruption in relation to the Covid-19 response, even though several anti-graft structures already exist in the country. But this doesn’t translate to a serious intent to fight corruption when a lack of transparency in the management of public funds leaves a perception of corruption in the minds of the people.

Giving room to citizens to perceive corruption in the response to a pandemic is exactly how not to handle a crisis. It will certainly affect future handling of crises. It is apparent that there is no one to compel these public officials to be transparent at all stages in their management of the current crisis — and their own consciences don’t appear to be sufficient.

Culled from mg.co.za

UNFORGOTTEN

I hold Dr. Bernard Nsokika FONLON in very high regard.

I first got to know him in Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, Nigeria, in the years 1953 and 1954. He was in second year theology when I entered that Major Seminary in September 1953. When he and his classmates were due to be ordained subdeacons in December 1954, the Seminary authorities and his Bishop decided not to admit him to major orders.

As a seminarian, I saw Bernard as a learned seminarian. I still remember how with lustre he sang “Audi Benigne Conditor” during Vespers in Lent. He took no breakfast. When other seminarians were at breakfast, he was studying, we believed he was at Latin and Greek!

During holidays and in the years after he had to leave Bigard Memorial Seminary, he used to visit one of the Nigerian priests, Monsignor Peter Meze-Idigo who was very kind to him, as he also was to seminarians in general. Once during those visits by Fonlon to Monsignor Meze at Dunukofia, my parish, I took Bernard to visit my parents at Eziowelle and my father, a good wine tapper, gave him good palm wine which he took gladly. I still remember that my mother tried to converse with him in Igbo and was surprised that Fonlon did not know how to speak Igbo. I had to inform my innocent mother that Igbo is not the only language spoken in Africa!

I lost track of Fonlon in the years when he worked for a Doctorate in Ireland and another Doctorate in France. The next time I met him was during the Nigeria-Biafra war, probably in 1968 or 1969. It was a quick meeting because we were both passengers in Air France flying to Paris from Douala. At that time, Dr Fonlon was Minister of Communications in the Camerun and I was Archbishop of Onitsha.

After that Nigerian civil war, I visited Dr Fonlon in Yaounde. It may have been around the year 1972. I first visited Archbishop Paul Verdzekov in Bamenda. Then I flew from Buea to Yaounde. Fonlon met me at the airport. I stayed about two days with him. I then learned that he was no longer Minister in the Government because President Ahidjo called him and explained: Bernad, I regret that we can no longer retain you in the cabinet because you put the rest of us ministers to shame, because you are your own driver and you drive an old car.

My unforgettable memory of my stay with Fonlon in his flat was that one day his sister prepared a fou-fou lunch for both of us. During lunch, Dr. Fonlon was so absorbed in our conversation (which was more me listening to his wisdom) that I finished my lunch; he then put together his fork and knife, put his plate aside and continued his learned discourse. He forgot that he had not eaten anything yet! I have never in my life of 87 years reached that level of detachment from creatures.

Dr Bernard Nsokika Fonlon was a man of high ideals. He prayed. He said the Latin Breviary daily. He loved the Church. He was not bitter that he was not ordained a priest. In my view, it was an administrative mistake of his superiors that he was not ordained. It seems to me that they did not understand enough. He was the type of professional intellectual who may seem not the routine parish priest. As a university priest, he could have answered many needs of the Church. However, as a lay person, he also did much good. The Camerounians are the best placed to make a judgement on this. He lived a celibate life. When I visited him in 1972, I saw that he loved the Breviary.

In my view, the Cause of Beatification of Dr. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon could be introduced. I am happy to be writing these lines on his anniversary of his death.

May he rest in the peace of Christ.

+ Francis Card. Arinze

Vatican City, 26 August, 2020.

Mali’s new military rulers said Thursday that former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was detained during the country’s coup on August 18, had been freed.

The announcement came on the eve of a summit by Mali’s neighbours, who are to decide whether to ratchet up pressure on the fledgling junta.

Keita’s ousting by rebel troops sent shockwaves through the region and in France, which sees Mali as a linchpin in its campaign against jihadism in the Sahel, where more than 5,000 French troops are based.

“President IBK is free in his movements, he’s at home,” a spokesman for the junta, Djibrila Maiga, told AFP, referring to Keita by his initials, as many Malians do.

The junta, calling itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), said on Facebook it was “informing public and international opinion that former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has been released and is currently in his residence”.

A Keita relative, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 75-year-old former leader had returned overnight to his house in the Sebenikoro district of the capital Bamako.

The source did not say whether he was still subject to any restrictions.

Keita, prime minister Boubou Cisse and other senior officials were seized by young officers who mutinied at a base near Bamako.

In the early hours of August 19, Keita appeared on national TV to announce his resignation, saying he had had no other choice, and wanted to avoid “bloodshed”.

His release — and other leaders — is a key demand of Mali’s neighbours, its ally France and international organisations, including the African Union and European Union.

Former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, heading a team from the regional bloc ECOWAS, was given access to Keita last Saturday, and said he seemed “very fine.”

The announcement Thursday came on the eve of a virtual summit by the 15-nation ECOWAS — the Economic Community of West African States — which has imposed sanctions against Mali for the coup.

Those measures include a closure of borders and a ban on trade that threaten to worsen Mali’s already severe social and economic troubles.

Jonathan’s three-day mission to Bamako foundered on the question of the transition to civilian rule.

The junta have promised to enact a political transition and stage elections within a “reasonable time” but not spelt out details.

Discussing progress with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, Jonathan said the coup leaders wanted to stay in power for a three-year transition period, an offer rejected by the mediators, according to a statement from the presidency.

“We also told them that what would be acceptable to ECOWAS was an Interim Government, headed by a civilian or retired military officer, to last for six or nine months, and maximum of 12 calendar months,” Jonathan was quoted as saying in the presidency statement late Wednesday.

Jihadist worries

Keita was elected in 2013 as a unifying figure in a fractured country and was returned in 2018 for a second five-year term.

But his popularity plummeted as he failed to counter a bloody jihadist campaign that has claimed thousands of lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, and to reverse the country’s downward economic spiral.

In a visit to the Estonian capital of Tallinn on Thursday, the head of the French armed forces, Francois Lecointre, said, “Our wish is to maintain the Malian army’s commitment in the fight against armed terrorist groups.”

He pointed to a campaign launched earlier this year to regain control over the strategic “three-border” zone, where the frontiers of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso come together.

“We are going to see if the Malian armed forces are able to maintain the momentum… we have told them that this appears essential to us,” said Lecointre.

“The corps commanders are still there, the area commanders are still there, these aren’t people who took part in the coup, and so we are continuing to cooperate with them,” he said.

(AFP)