By Mamadou Ismaïla KONATÉ
Former Minister of Justice of Mali.
Five years after the coup d’état of August 18, 2020, Mali is sinking into unprecedented chaos. Rampant poverty, risk of famine, depleted public finances, territories handed over to jihadist groups, stifled freedoms, instrumentalized justice: the observation is relentless. In an open letter, Mamadou Ismaïla Konaté, former Minister of Justice, calls for the resignation of President Assimi Goïta and paves the way for a truly democratic, ethical transition under the control of the Malian people. This initiative, subject to the signature of all citizens for thirty days, sounds the alarm: silence is no longer possible in the face of authoritarian drift and the current impasse. Mali deserves better than fear, denial, and national collapse.
Bamako, November 1, 2025
Mr. President of the Transition,
Preliminary: Why an open letter?
When a regime closes itself off in denial, making constructive dialogue impossible, and fear of repression stifles public debate, the open letter becomes more than just a communication choice: it is a civic necessity. It is the last resort to break through the imposed wall of silence and to make the national and international public opinion aware of the seriousness of a situation that threatens the very foundations of the nation.
This approach is not undertaken lightly, as we are aware of the risks faced by those who dare to challenge the single thought. The tragic case of Marianne Cissé is the most poignant illustration of this. This young TikToker from Tonka, followed by 95,000 subscribers, was abducted last Thursday by suspected jihadists while filming live at the market in her city. The next day, she was publicly executed in Independence Square in Tonka, right in the city center, in front of a helpless crowd.
How could law enforcement not prevent this murder in broad daylight, in a city that is supposed to be under state control? This question haunts all Malians today. Marianne Cissé’s execution reveals the total collapse of state authority and the absolute impunity enjoyed by jihadists, even in urban centers.
But faced with authoritarian drift, state collapse, and the growing barbarism, remaining silent would be complicit in an impending disaster. It is therefore a patriotic duty that compels us today to speak out publicly, in memory of Marianne Cissé and all the victims of your incompetence.
It is with deep concern and a sense of urgency that we address you. Mali is going through one of the darkest periods in its history. At this very moment, a quote from former President Alpha Oumar Konaré, spoken in 2000 in Abidjan in anticipation of the Ivorian crisis, resonates with terrible acuity:
“The disaster comes quickly when we do not have the courage to speak to each other, to exchange, to look at each other, to trust each other, dear neighbors, necessary partners, when everything boils down to the quest for power!”
These words perfectly describe the tragedy that you have inflicted on Mali.
I. The chronicle of a double perjury and a national shipwreck
When you and your comrades seized power on August 18, 2020, you proclaimed yourselves saviors of a country in danger. Less than a year later, on May 2, 2021, you repeated the feat by overthrowing the leaders of the transition that you had installed yourselves, in a second coup d’état that confirmed your absolute power. This double perjury, based on promises of stability and rapid elections never kept, plunged the country into an infernal cycle.
Five years later, the observation is damning: Mali has never been in such a catastrophic situation. The illusion of a restoration of state authority has dissipated, giving way to an unprecedented security, economic, and social chaos.
II. A socio-economic disaster: poverty, hunger, and exodus
Your governance has directly exacerbated the misery of the Malian people. The poverty rate, which was 41.9% in 2020, climbed to 43.9% in 2023, throwing hundreds of thousands of our compatriots into destitution. Rampant inflation alone has pushed over 574,000 additional people into poverty.
A real humanitarian crisis is looming. Nearly 1.5 million people are in a situation of acute food insecurity. Among them, UN agencies have identified 2,600 people classified at the most critical level: Phase 5 (Catastrophe) according to the international classification of food insecurity. This highest level of the five-point scale means that these people are on the brink of declared famine, experiencing extreme food shortages even after exhausting all their coping mechanisms. They require emergency humanitarian intervention to survive. Child malnutrition has reached critical levels, with one million children at risk of acute malnutrition.
Faced with this plight, there is an exodus. An economic and security exile that drains the country of its vital forces. Economic operators, desperate due to the crisis and insecurity, are fleeing massively, especially to Ivory Coast where nearly three million Malians already live. Meanwhile, real unemployment is skyrocketing. While official figures are artificially low, the unemployment rate combined with underemployment has more than doubled, from 9% in 2019 to 20% in 2022, hitting a youth without prospects hard.
The absence of fuel: a symbol of incapacity to govern
The lack of fuel that paralyzes the country is a sign and symbol of the leaders’ inability to meet the basic needs of the population through acts of government. This failure has a significant impact on all vital sectors of the nation. The transport of people and goods is severely compromised, strangling the economy and isolating communities. The provision of health care is threatened, as people’s lives in hospitals depend on it: immobilized ambulances, generators stopped, medicines no longer reaching health centers.
The education system is collapsing. Schools are closing for this reason, and teachers, forced to strike, are unable to reach the establishments due to lack of fuel and means of transportation. An entire generation sees its future compromised. The country’s infrastructure is in disrepair: broken roads, bridges in poor condition between cities. The supply of energy becomes scarce, as the national energy company is in name only.
The collapse of public finances
This fuel crisis is causing a vertiginous collapse in state revenues. Fuel, which alone represents 40% of customs revenues, is now entering the country in drips. VAT is plummeting due to the dramatic slowdown in economic activity and the contraction of imports. Mining companies, pillars of the national economy, have depleted their fuel stocks and have no visibility on what comes next. The country is more than ever on the brink of financial abyss, unable to finance its most essential public services.
All this has allowed this military regime to demand resilience from desperate, disillusioned populations who no longer know where to turn. Any revolt is seen as defiance in a country where gendarme brigades, defense and security forces are tasked with nothing but oppressing, starving, abducting, and injuring. This is what sums up your governance: a repressive apparatus at the service of a power incapable of ensuring the most basic sovereign functions.
III. On the security front: total debacle and outsourcing of violence
Your security strategy has failed on all fronts. Far from being under control, the terrorist advance is reaching record levels. A UN report revealed that an Islamic State-affiliated group has nearly doubled its territory in Mali in less than a year. The withdrawal of MINUSMA, which you demanded, has left a huge void, exacerbating the exposure of civilian populations.
As a solution, you chose to replace institutional partners with mercenaries from the Wagner group, now renamed Africa Corps. This outsourcing of violence has resulted in a multiplication of abuses. Massacres of civilians, such as the one in Moura in March 2022 where over 500 people were executed according to the UN, forced disappearances, and acts of torture have been documented by numerous human rights organizations. These atrocities, committed with total impunity, have torn apart national unity, exacerbated intercommunal tensions, and fueled deadly cycles of revenge.
IV. The reign of terror and a servile justice
Beyond military failure, Malian society is suffocating under the weight of repression. Public freedoms are violated, rights annihilated. Cybercrime laws are used to silence any dissenting voice. Prisons are filling up with journalists, activists, and even officers whose only crime is describing reality.
Figures like activist Rokia Doumbia, known as “Rose la vie chère,” arrested in March 2023 for denouncing the high cost of living, languish in prison. Former Prime Ministers like Choguel Kokalla Maïga – who called you “blessed children of the nation” – and Moussa Mara are imprisoned, certainly for trivial reasons in the case of Moussa Mara. Meanwhile, jihadist propagandists issue fatwas on social media without being bothered.
This dual-speed justice illustrates the arbitrariness that now reigns, orchestrated by judges made servile, whose zeal to keep political prisoners in detention serves no other purpose than to please the prince. Do not forget the warning of history: those who rule by the sword will always perish by the sword.
V. A solemn call for resignation
Faced with an existential threat, the time should be for national unity. Yet, you are unable to make such a call, as you are yourself responsible for the country’s disintegration. Faced with history, these facts are clear signs of high treason against the Malian people.
It is not enough to dismiss a few military leaders from their positions. It is up to you and those who have self-proclaimed themselves at the head of the state to draw the consequences of your manifest inability to govern and protect Mali. We solemnly ask you, on behalf of the signatories of this letter, to resign from your positions and allow a true democratic transition.
This open letter remains open for thirty days for online signatures from all other individuals who share the diagnosis of your pitiful and calamitous governance and conclude that salvation lies in this resignation to prevent Mali from exacerbating the malaise and extending the consequences of an abyss that could lead to the worst.
VI. The foundations of a new transition: political, democratic, and ethical, under absolute popular control
We do not demand your departure to plunge Mali back into uncertainty. We ask for it to pave the way for a new kind of transition, truly democratic, ethical, and entirely under the full, regular, and absolute control of the Malian people. To avoid reproducing the same drifts, this transition must be based on original institutions and mechanisms designed to exclusively serve the general interest.
1. National Sovereign Refoundation Assembly (ANSR)
The starting point will be the organization, within three months, of the National Sovereign Refoundation Assembly. These assemblies will bring together, for fifteen days, delegates from all regions, circles, and municipalities of Mali, representing all components of the nation: youth, women, farmers, herders, artisans, intellectuals, religious, diaspora, political parties, unions, civil society. The delegates will be elected at the grassroots level by their communities, not appointed by authorities. These assemblies will define the Transition Charter, its maximum duration, its bodies, its priorities, and its prohibitions. Their decisions will have the force of constitutional law.
2. Citizen Council for Monitoring the Transition (CCST)
A new body will be created: the Citizen Council for Monitoring the Transition, composed of 77 ordinary citizens drawn by lot from the entire adult Malian population, renewed by thirds every six months. This council will have the exclusive mission of permanently monitoring all transition institutions: the right to access all public documents, the right to question any official, the right to refer to justice in case of failure to comply with the general interest. Its sessions will be public and broadcast live. No major decision of the transition can be made without its consent.
3. National Mission Government (GMN)
Executive power will be exercised by a National Mission Government, composed of individuals recognized for their competence, integrity, and patriotic commitment. Each minister will be proposed by the Assemblies and validated by the Citizen Council after a public hearing. Ministers will sign an Ethics and Accountability Charter committing them to total transparency of their assets, the prohibition of any lucrative activity during the transition, and ineligibility for the elections that follow. Any minister can be dismissed by the Citizen Council in case of failure. Important: the Government will not include a Ministry of Justice. Justice will be completely independent and autonomous.
4. Chief Justice: guarantor of judicial independence
Justice will be led by a Chief Justice, a magistrate completely independent and external to the Government. The Chief Justice will have its own budget, voted directly by the Transition Parliament and not subject to Government arbitration. They will be elected for a single non-renewable term of five years, according to a transparent and democratic system: 60% of the votes will come from judicial bodies (magistrates, clerks, lawyers) and 40% from other bodies (law professors, human rights organizations, representatives of civil society). The candidate must be at least fifty-eight years old and no more than sixty years old, guaranteeing experience and energy. The Chief Justice will be the guarantor of judicial independence, the integrity of magistrates, and equal access of all citizens to impartial justice.
5. Paritarian and Representative Transition Parliament (PTPR)
Legislative power will be exercised by a Transition Parliament of 147 members, strictly paritarian (50% women), composed half of locally elected representatives and half of representatives of socio-professional organizations, unions, and civil society. No member will have held political or military office under previous regimes. All sessions will be public and broadcast. The Parliament will adopt transition laws and oversee the Government’s actions.
6. High Council of Probity and Transparency (HCPT)
A High Council of Probity and Transparency, composed of nine sages of recognized integrity (retired magistrates, university professors, moral figures), will be responsible for verifying the ethical compliance of all transition acts. It will publish a public report every quarter on the use of public resources, contracts awarded, and appointments made. Any citizen can refer to it in case of suspicion of corruption or embezzlement.
7. Regional Citizen Control Assemblies (ACRC)
In each region, a Regional Citizen Control Assembly of 21 members drawn by lot will be set up to monitor the actions of local transition authorities. These assemblies will hold monthly public sessions where any citizen can speak. They will transmit their observations to the national Citizen Council.
8. Popular Revocability Mechanism (MRP)
Any transition official (minister, parliamentarian, senior official) can be revoked by popular petition if 100,000 citizens sign a motivated request. An independent commission will examine the petition and, if justified, organize a recall referendum within 30 days.
9. Complete Transparency Digital Platform (PNTI)
All decisions, deliberations, budgets, public contracts, appointments, and reports of the transition will be published in real-time on a digital platform accessible to all. Each citizen can consult, comment, and report any anomalies. A public dashboard will display the progress of the transition objectives.
10. Special Transition Tribunal (TST)
A Special Tribunal, composed of honest magistrates and international jurists, will be created to judge economic crimes, human rights violations, and acts of high treason committed under previous regimes. Its trials will be public and broadcast. No amnesty will be possible for serious crimes.
11. Military: back to the barracks and reform
The military will immediately return to their barracks and focus exclusively on defending the territory. A Commission for the Reform of the Armed Forces, composed of civilians and international experts, will be responsible for restructuring the army, training its leaders in republican values, and ensuring its subordination to civilian power. No military personnel will be able to hold political office during the transition or run in the elections that follow.
These institutions and mechanisms are non-negotiable. They form the foundation of a truly democratic, ethical transition under absolute popular control. No special interest can divert them. The Malian people will be sovereign, not in theory, but in practice. A transition that restores hope, dignity, and power to the Malian people.
VII. Appeal to Malians: together, let’s rebuild our homeland
Beyond this call for resignation, we make a solemn appeal to all Malians aware of the situation: the time has come to engage in a collective dynamic of seeking practical and appropriate solutions to end this descent into hell.
The Mali we love, that of our ancestors and that we want to pass on to our children, deserves better than the current disaster. It is time to bring together another Mali, a Mali united around the sacred ideal of saving it, rebuilding it, and reconstructing it stone by stone, with all the vital forces of the nation.
This commitment is not a utopia, it is a historical necessity. We call on intellectuals, youth, women, artists, religious, economic operators, farmers, herders, workers from all sectors, the diaspora, and all citizens who are passionate about peace and justice to unite their efforts in safeguarding the general interest and the homeland.
Mali has faced trials in the past and has always emerged stronger. We have the human resources, collective intelligence, resilience, and determination necessary to build a new Mali: a Mali of justice, freedom, dignity, shared prosperity, and lasting peace.
The change we wish for will not come from outside, but from ourselves, from our ability to come together beyond our differences, to dialogue courageously, to propose concrete solutions, and to implement them with determination. Hope is reborn when citizens rise up and take back control of their destiny.
We therefore invite all willing Malians to join this dynamic of action, of national reconstruction. Together, we can transform anger into action, despair into hope, and division into unity. The Mali of tomorrow is built today, and it will be built with all of us.
VIII. Conclusion: The disaster is here, courage must be to leave
As President Konaré so rightly reminded us, “to political problems, real political solutions are needed.” Mali deserves better than this authoritarian drift. Will you force us to applaud the jihadists in the face of their incompetence? No! Refusal to terrorism cannot coexist with acceptance of your incompetence.
The prophetic words have come true under your reign. The disaster has arrived. It is time to have the courage to leave.
Mamadou Ismaïla KONATÉ
Former Minister of Justice of Mali
References
[1] UNDP (March 2025). Annual Report 2024 – UNDP Mali.
[2] World Bank (2022). Mali Economic Update: Protecting the Vulnerable during the Recovery.
[3] World Food Programme (2025). Mali Country Brief.
[4] FAO & WFP (June 16, 2025). Hunger Hotspots Report – early warnings on acute food insecurity.
[5] UNICEF France (September 1, 2023). Mali: one million children at risk of acute malnutrition.
[6] QIRAA (August 5, 2024). Concerns rise among Malians in Ivory Coast over ECOWAS exit plan.
[7] Afrobarometer (May 3, 2023). Mali struggles to create jobs especially for young people, citizens believe.
[8] United Nations (2023). Report on the situation in Mali.
[9] OHCHR (May 12, 2023). Mali: UN report denounces massacre of over 500 people in Moura in 2022.
[10] Human Rights Watch (March 28, 2024). Mali:
