Malian Colonel Assimi Goita on Friday said a new prime minister will be appointed within days, in his first remarks since seizing power this week.
The army officer made the announcement during a meeting with political and civil-society figures in Bamako, as international pressure rises on the country’s ruling military administration.
Soldiers detained President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane on Monday, before releasing them Thursday after they resigned.
But the twin arrests triggered a diplomatic uproar — and marked the second apparent coup within a year in the unstable country.
Ndaw and Ouane had led a transitional government tasked with steering the return to civilian rule after a coup last August that toppled Mali’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
Keita was forced out by young army officers, led by Goita, following mass protests over perceived corruption and his failure to quell a bloody jihadist insurgency.
“In the coming days, the prime minister who will be appointed will carry out a broad consultation between the different factions,” Goita said.
He asked those attending the meeting to support his preference of a prime minister from the opposition M5 movement, a once-powerful group that the military sidelined after the August coup.
“Either we accept joining hands to save our country, or we wage clandestine wars, and we will all fail,” Goita said.
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