The head of an association reputed to be close to the junta in Mali was placed in police custody on Monday, September 4 in Bamako, after calling for respect for the duration of the transition before a return of civilians to the controls, learned the AFP from a security source. Adama Ben Diarra, known as “Ben le Cerveau”, heads the Yerewolo-Debout association on the ramparts, which actively supports the soldiers who run the country after overthrowing President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta on August 18, 2020.
Mr. Diarra received a summons from the judicial investigation brigade (BIJ) on Monday morning, to which he responded in the afternoon, following a request from the prosecution, a source told AFP. security close to the BIJ. He was interviewed by this police unit for “attack on the credit of the State”, said this source without specifying the exact facts alleged against Mr. Diarra, also a member of the National Transitional Council (CNT), which serves as the legislative body in Mali and was installed by the military. He was then placed in police custody at the BIJ on Monday evening, and was to be presented Tuesday morning to a prosecutor from commune VI of Bamako, a source close to the BIJ told AFP.
On August 27, the head of Yerewolo-Debout on the ramparts had, on a private radio, called on the junta to respect the duration of the transition, after the soldiers had committed themselves to the Economic Community of African States in West (ECOWAS) to return power to civilians in March 2024. He also criticized the management of the junta and deplored the arrests made, according to him, by the security services.
After overthrowing President Keïta, the Malian junta demanded the withdrawal of the French force “Barkhane”, effective since 2022, then requested that of the United Nations mission, Minusma, by the end of the year. The junta has made sovereignty its mantra, broken the alliance with France and its partners in the fight against jihadism, to turn militarily and politically to Russia. Since 2012, Mali has been in the grip of a deep security crisis that started in the north and which has spread to the center of the country as well as to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.