Mali's ex-interim president, PM freed from house arrest
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The new interim president of Mali Bah Ndaw is sworn in during the Inauguration ceremony in Bamako, Mali September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Amadou Keita
Bamako: The Local Committee for Monitoring the Transition in Mali (CLST) has decided to lift restrictive measures on former Malian transitional president Bah N'Daw and his Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, as per a report by IANS.
The committee, which includes representatives of West African regional bloc ECOWAS and the African Union, said in a statement released on Friday that it welcomed a decision to lift these restrictions. "The committee reaffirms its support for the process of transition in Mali," it said.
For the CLST, this decision is a "positive development" which falls within the framework of the commitments made by the transitional authorities.
It urged all the parties concerned to show a spirit of responsibility and attachment to the national interest, to show respect for the law, and also to refrain from any action that could impact the proper conduct of the transition.
In May, N'Daw and Ouane, as well as some of their relatives, were deprived of their liberty after being forced to give up their prerogatives by the military junta which overthrew then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18, 2020.
The government has been struggling to quell an armed uprising that first broke out in the north in 2012, and which has since spread to the centre of the country and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed in the conflict to date.
On Friday, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Group to Support Islam and Muslims claimed responsibility for an August attack that killed 17 Malian soldiers, according to a SITE Intelligence.
