Mali is turning a decisive page in its political life. By a presidential decree, adopted by the extraordinary Council of Ministers on 13 May 2025, the authorities of the military transition have officially dissolved all political parties and organizations of a political nature in the country. This is unprecedented in the country. In addition to generating a wave of national and international outrage, this decree marks the end of multi-party democracy.
A dissolution with the taste of “reform”
The announcement was made on the ORTM channel by Mamani Nassiré, Minister delegate to the Prime Minister responsible for political reforms. According to him, this decision is part of a broad process of “re-founding” political life. The government says it wants to “clean up” the partisan landscape by reducing the number of political parties now estimated at nearly 300. The government wants to set up and review their funding, which amounts to 0.25% of annual tax revenues. No political party can now organize meetings or carry out activities, under penalty of sanctions. On the other hand, elected representatives and officials belonging to political parties can continue their missions, on the sole condition that they no longer claim to be members of their party.

A repressed measure
For several weeks, many political parties, including the “Yelema” party, had denounced this project. Its president, Youssouf Diawara, said: “Political parties are not the problem in Mali. The emergency is insecurity, high cost of living, health and education”. Indeed, the political parties that oppose this decree see it as a violation of the Constitution and a setback for democracy. A citizen protest movement had emerged in early May. A demonstration, which gathered several hundred people on May 3, 2025 in Bamako, was quickly dispersed by the security forces. During this demonstration, several opposition and civil society figures were arrested and some people are reported missing.

Sanctioned media
In the past four years, Mali has seen two military coups. On 18 August 2020, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and his Prime Minister Boubou Cissé were removed from power before being arrested. Nine months later, the transitional president Bah N’Daw and his prime minister Moctar Ouane are deposed on May 24, 2021. In ten years, Mali has experienced three coups with the military takeover in 2012, and the fifth in the history of Mali after the coups d’état of 1991 and 1968. The Malian authorities have increased restrictions on both foreign and domestic media. They accuse them of partiality in the treatment of information concerning the situation of the country and disinformation. At the national level, in December 2024, the Djoliba TV News report was withdrawn. The High Authority for Communication (HAC) of Mali. The channel TV5 Monde has been suspended again “until further notice” on 13 May 2025. She is accused of “lack of impartiality” in her coverage of opposition protest movements on May 3, 2025 in her report for the 20:30 newspaper. It had already been suspended for three months in 2024.

Suspension of political parties: After Burkina Faso and Niger, it is the turn of Mali
The repeal of the charter of political parties that set their legal and financial frameworks, leaves an institutional vacuum according to its refractory. Political parties no longer exist legally. Only civil society still exists. But it remains closely monitored by the state. With this new decision taken by the transitional government, Mali joins its ESA neighbours. Before him, Burkina Faso suspended political party activities since September 2022. In Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani ordered the dissolution of parties on 26 March 2025 following controversial national assizes.

Just elected, Brice Oligui Nguema, former president of the transition, wants to engage the country in a profound institutional refoundation. After the creation of a new party, he intends to appoint vice-presidents and carry out electoral reforms.

A victory expected, a transition in motion
Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema came, largely, at the head of the presidential election of April 11, 2025. According to the results announced by the Minister of the Interior, Hermann Immongault, he was elected with 90% of the votes cast. This, it would seem, Soviet score is the measure of popularity gained since the coup d’état of August 30, 2023, by which the head of the Republican Guard had ended the reign of the Bongo family. After less than two years at the head of the Gabonese transition, Brice Oligui Nguema had promised a political break. With the removal of the Prime Minister, executive power is now centralized in the Presidency. He will not want to concentrate all these powers in his hands alone, so he plans to create vice-presidents.

Two Vice-Chairs
With the adoption of more than 1,000 normative texts in the first year, to give effect to the principles of the new Constitution. A reform presented by its supporters as a rationalisation of institutions, in a country where power was already, in fact, very concentrated. The two vice-presidents who will be appointed will soon have to be designated: one, protocol, will be the number two of the state; the other will be in charge of government action. The latter must have a high level of administrative expertise and must be a political force. The names of Joseph Owondault Berre and Raymond Ndong Sima circulate. But, nothing is certain.

A new calendar
The political battle does not end there. A new law on political parties, with stricter criteria and an electoral redistribution that will allow the organization of legislative and local elections from August 2025. Always in the perspective of the gathering. On the presidential majority side, the platform Rassemblement des Bâtisseurs (RdB) will turn into a political party. He intends to gather the President’s support without absorbing the many components of the platform (84 parties, 4,200 associations, 22,000 individual members). Its coordinator, Anges-Kevin Nzigou, presents it as a “political matrix” designed to structure a future majority. This initiative is causing a stir: Justine Lekogo, member of the platform, has publicly expressed her reservations, questioning the legitimacy of this transformation and the silence of the president on the subject.

A new Republic
If the refoundation dynamic seems to be on track, the institutional balance remains to be built. The concentration of power around the president, even validated by the ballot box and referendum, raises questions. The break with the old regime will be measured by actions: political openness, independence of counter-powers, electoral transparency. Brice Oligui Nguema now has free hands. It remains to be seen whether it will make Gabon a renewed democracy, or whether it will perpetuate, in some other form, the legacy of a centralized power.

The rumour of a riot at the PPA, formerly Abidjan Detention and Correction House (MACA) was circulating in the city of Abidjan all day on 14 April 2025. A statement from the Directorate of the Prison Administration has just come out: there have been riots. Yes. Many people were injured. Also, many voices have been raised to alert on the fragile balance between prisoners’ rights and prison authority.

Yet another riot
The recent tensions at the Abidjan Prison Centre have caused many injuries. A few months ago, it was the prison of Bouaké, second city in the country, which was boiling. What began as vandalism quickly turned into a clear attempt to take control of the prison by inmates. This latest riot has revived a crucial debate: that of the authority of the state within the walls of Ivorian prisons.

A prompt official release
In an official statement dated 14 April 2025, the prison administration of the largest prison in Côte d’Ivoire confirmed that several facilities had been destroyed by detainees. Indeed, the latter oppose a new measure regulating the management of common spaces. This reform, implemented in the context of the fight against the introduction and circulation of drugs in prisons, aimed to restrict access to the central court, which has become a real crossroads for all kinds of drug trafficking. According to the press release, there are no deaths. In addition, 12 detainees have been injured. According to the same communiqué, order was restored thanks to the joint intervention of prison officers, the police and the gendarmerie.

Rise of gangs
But beyond the facts, this new episode of violence highlights a broader problem that the prison administration is struggling to manage. In February, similar riots broke out at the House of Detention and Correction in Bouaké. The fact that these riots are taking place in the country’s two major prisons highlights something very disturbing, namely the rise of insubordination in prison and the groups of men who, Alongside the guards, truly manage – or should we say – rule the country’s prisons. For some observers, this situation results from a growing imbalance between the rights granted to detainees and the means of control left to prison officers. “The freedoms granted, although essential in a state governed by the rule of law, end up conferring disproportionate power on prisoners who are sometimes organised and able to defy the prison authority itself,” said one prison worker.

Prison guard: a profession under pressure
The profession of prison officer, often invisible, appears today as one of the most exposed but also of the most ungrateful. Faced with increasingly numerous and difficult to supervise prison populations, these professionals are demanding more than press releases: they are asking for a real revaluation, as is happening in several sectors within the country’s administration. Among the options mentioned: a clear return of authority to prison staff, their systematic association with decisions impacting security, and better administrative and legal protection. Because today, many people say they are on their own.

A national implementation strategy
These incidents, repeatedly, reveal a fundamental problem: in order to deal with such riots in the future, a coherent, national prison strategy based on firmness, respect for the hierarchy and the restoration of legitimate authority is needed. It is not a question of denying the rights of detainees, but of reminding them that these rights must be exercised within the framework of a clear and respected republican order. Indeed, the prison cannot become a space of non-law. However, it must remain a place of justice, rehabilitation, but also authority.