Five former dignitaries arrested after the coup at the end of May remain in detention or under de facto house arrest, according to their relatives or themselves. In the latter category, former transitional president Ba N’Daw and former Prime Minister Moctar Ouane fear for their health.
On Monday morning, former Malian Prime Minister Moctar Ouane asked his driver to get his 4X4 vehicle ready. For the first time since his release at the end of May from Kati, a military stronghold, he set foot outside Bamako. But very quickly, an official message was sent to the security forces to find him, especially in a Malian region that borders Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina.
Some thought he was preparing to leave the country. But he quickly returned home and noticed that security had been reinforced. In the aftermath, he received Guillaume Nguefa, the head of the human rights division of the UN mission in Mali, to send a message: he and former transitional president Ba N’Daw were under heavy house arrest and were not free to move.
The situation of three other people arrested since the last coup and held in Kati, near Bamako, is also being closely monitored by the UN diplomat. They are the former head of Mali’s intelligence services, the former president’s private chief of staff, and General Souleymane Doukouré, Minister of Defense in the last government.