BAMAKO, mali — Under pressure from the nations bordering Mali, the junior officer who seized control of the country in a coup last month signed an accord, agreeing Friday to return the country to constitutional rule.
The announcement was made hours after separatist rebels in the country’s north declared their independence, further complicating the crisis that began March 21.
On Friday, Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo emerged from his office inside the military base that has acted as the de facto seat of government for the past 16 days, ever since he and his men marched from the barracks to the presidential palace, reversing two decades of democratic rule in the space of a single day.
Flanked by the ministers of neighboring nations, he read out the accord, stating that under Article 36 of Mali’s constitution, the head of the national assembly becomes interim president in the event of a vacancy of power. The head of the parliament will form an interim government that will organize new elections.
However, the accord did not say what role the military junta or its young leader will play in the future. It also did not state when the head of the assembly will assume the post or how long the transition will last before new elections are held. Dioncounda Traore, head of the assembly, fled Mali on the day of the coup.
Article 36 of the constitution says elections should be held in no more than 40 days. The accord stated that that timeframe will likely need to be extended, because of rebellion in the northern half of the country.
“Because of the exceptional circumstances that the country is going through, because of the institutional crisis and the armed rebellion in the north which have badly affected the functioning of the institutions of the republic and because of the impossibility of organizing elections in 40 days as set out under the constitution,” Sanogo said, reading from the accord, “it is indispensable to organize a political transition with the aim of organizing free, democratic and transparent elections in all parts of the country.”
The declaration was welcomed by Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole, who flanked Sanogo while he read the accord. Bassole said afterward that the nations bordering Mali had agreed to lift crippling sanctions that went into effect this week, including the closure of the country’s borders. Landlocked Mali imports all its fuel, and already many neighborhoods in Bamako had electricity for only half the day.
A senior official involved in the negotiations said the head of the assembly would likely fly back as early as today.
The news comes hours after Tuareg rebels, who seized control of the country’s distant north in the chaotic aftermath of the coup in the capital, declared independence Friday of their Azawad nation.
“We, the people of the Azawad,” they said in a statement published on the rebel website, “proclaim the irrevocable independence of the state of the Azawad starting from this day, Friday, April 6, 2012.”
France, the European Union and the United States all issued statements saying they would not recognize the new Tuareg state.
