Moctar Ouane is the new Prime Minister of Mali. He must now form his government within 48 hours. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, he has been absent from the political scene in recent years. The appointment of a civilian figure to this post seems to be building a consensus both within the political class and in civil society.
Who is that man ? Trained in Dakar, Senegal and then in France at the National School of Administration, he was diplomatic advisor to UEMOA. He is originally from the Mopti region in central Mali. He has a long experience in diplomacy on the clock. He represented his country at the United Nations as Ambassador for seven years. It was in 2004 that he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was reappointed until 2011 in the various governments, under the chairmanship of former President Amadou Toumani Touré.
Absent from the political scene in recent years, he has held the positions of political adviser, general delegate in charge of peace and security. Today with this new responsibility, his first role is to reconcile the Malians with their political leaders.
He must play a unifying role in a country which has just gone through political tensions which led to the dismissal of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. It remains to be seen what place the M5, the protest movement, will occupy there.
