But Alassane Ouattara also telephoned Malian junta chief Colonel Assimi Goïta with an invitation to make an official visit – just the sort of recognition of legitimacy that Bamako had been angling for...
	 
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	     Colonel Assimi Goïta's Comité nationale pour le salut du peuple (CNSP) is firmly in the driving seat  in politics and business...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
            Vol 63 No 22 | 
            - MALI
- FRANCE
- SAHEL
	      It may be that Bamako's junta leader Colonel Assimi Goïta calculates that the rhetoric from his chief diplomats Diop and Maïga will distract popular attention from the regime's compromises with West African leaders and international officials...
 The US is trying to persuade those around Mali's junta leader Colonel Assimi Goïta that their cooperation with Wagner is blocking Bamako's access to the sort of security assistance that Washington provides to Burkina Faso and Niger...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     Sonko suggested that Senegal had been contributing forces to Minusma to serve the interests of France  and loudly advertised his full support for Colonel Assimi Goïta  whose junta continues to hold 46 Ivorian Minusma-linked troops as virtual hostages (see Pointers)...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     Choguel Maïga seemed to suit the prickly style of Col Assimi Goïta  who appointed him after staging a second coup to dispose of a civilian transitional administration he thought was too accommodating to the West...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     Part of any deal with Moscow would involve Wagner Group  the mercenary company close to President Vladimir Putin which has security contracts with Col Assimi Goïta's military regime in neighbouring Mali and Central African Republic...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     The incident exposes the depth of the resentment that has built up in some quarters of Colonel Assimi Goïta's regime towards the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas)  since the original Malian putsch in August 2020 (AC Vol 61 No 17  No road back for Keïta)...
 And while Colonel Assimi Goïta's regime is clearly seizing on the incident to pressure international forces it has a beef with  the UN and its German contingent do seem to have tripped up on the paperwork...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	    Malian military ruler Colonel Assimi Goïta is determined to show that his forces can tackle a growing Islamist onslaught  despite the withdrawal of French and European troops  under pressure from the regime...
 The major role played by the Forces Armées Maliennes reflected junta leader Colonel Assimi Goïta's determination to show that even in the most distant regions of this huge country  Malian government troops can succeed without western backing...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     Two days later  Mali's President  Assimi Goïta  signed a decree stating that elections would be held by March 2024  meaning that the transition would last 24 months starting from 26 March 2022 – the date of the Ecowas summit at which formal negotiations over the length of the transition began...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
            Vol 63 No 12 | 
            - MALI
- FRANCE
	     The summons is another round in the bitter fight between the junta under Colonel Assimi Goïta and Paris and touches some raw nerves about France's relationship with Bamako's civilian elite...