BAMAKO, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Malian former Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane is appointed Mali's transitional prime minister on Sunday by the country's transitional president Bah N'Daw in a presidential decree.
Born in 1955, Ouane was Mali's ambassador to the United Nations between 1995 and 2002, and minister of foreign affairs under the presidency of former President Amadou Toumani Toure.
He is currently the Delegate General for Peace and Security of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).
According to the Transition Charter adopted by some 500 representatives of Mali's political forces, Ouane must form a transitional government composed of a maximum of 25 members.
Following the swearing-in of transitional president Bah N'Daw, officials of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced in Bamako that the lifting of sanctions imposed on Mali following the taking of power by the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) would therefore depend on the appointment of a civilian prime minister.
According to the final press release of the mini-summit held in Accra on Sept. 15, all the sanctions imposed against Mali would be lifted immediately upon the effective appointment of Mali's transitional president and its transitional prime minister.
A mutiny broke out on Aug. 18 in a military camp in Kati, near Bamako, during which Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his prime minister were arrested and brought to this same camp by the mutineers during the day.
Keita announced in the evening his own resignation, and that of his government and the dissolution of the National Assembly.
ECOWAS, a regional bloc made up of 15 member states, decided, a few hours after the resignation of Keita, to suspend Mali from all its decision-making bodies, to close all air and land borders, and to stop all the economic, commercial and financial flows and transactions of its member countries with Mali. Enditem
