http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/120322/mali-coup-poor-country-big-ally-against-al-qaeda
NAIROBI, Kenya — Mali’s main airport is shut, the borders are closed and a curfew declared. Mutinous soldiers have taken over the presidential palace and the state broadcaster. Gunshots still ring out in different parts of the capital Bamako.
It's a coup.
Malian soldiers began their mutiny on Wednesday afternoon in a single barracks. It started with a seemingly spontaneous outburst against the minister of defence, General Sadio Gassama, who was visiting the encampment.
The soldiers' key grievance was a lack of arms and equipment needed to properly tackle a Tuareg insurgency that has been triggered by the return of former pro-Gaddafi fighters coming back from Libya with their weapons. The soldiers at Kati Barracks, 13 miles outside Bamako, fired in the air, the minister fled, and the revolt began.
Months after his inglorious death at the hands of rebel fighters, Gaddafi’s influence is being felt far beyond his unmarked grave.
The separatist Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) have scored a string of victories against Mali’s army in the country’s vast northern desert in recent months. A rebel spokesman has already threatened to take advantage of the current confusion over the coup to push forward.
More from GlobalPost: Mali soldiers overthrow government, loot presidential palace (VIDEO)
Twenty-four hours on, it does not look like a pre-planned coup, and it is far from consolidated. The rebellious soldiers have named themselves the National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State, (CNRDR), but it remains unclear how much support the coup leaders have, either among the civilian population or the army.
The two-dozen or so soldiers who appeared on state television to declare they had taken over were mostly junior officers. Their leader, Amadou Sanogo, is only a captain. More senior officers and others in the security apparatus — which includes troops trained in counter-terrorism by the US — have not yet declared their position.
A handful of government ministers have reportedly been arrested, but the whereabouts of President Amadou Toumani Toure, 63, is still in doubt. Initial reports had him seeking refuge at the US embassy, but these seemed to be discredited a few hours later by a government official who said the president was at an army barracks surrounded by loyal troops.
Whether the president will make a stand or accept his ouster is also, for now, unclear, and will determine whether Wednesday’s coup is a fait accompli or simply an attempted putsch that triggers more fighting.
Mali is of little economic significance — landlocked, it is one of the world’s poorest countries, and produces mostly gold and cotton — but it is of strategic importance to the US for its assistance in the fight against Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the subsidiary of Al Qaeda which is gaining in strength and audacity and hides out in the deserts of northern Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Algeria.
Although these are the same areas that Tuareg nomads call home — and despite the allegations of Mali’s government — there is no firm evidence of links between Islamist militants and the Tuaregs.
More from GlobalPost: Mali's Tuareg rebels take advantage of coup
Mali has for the last two decades been an anchor of relative stability in a region prone to conflict. It has, for the most part, maintained a good semblance of democracy, so the current situation is a worry not just for Mali but for the region, which is already under pressure from resurgent Islamists and drought-driven food shortages.
It is no surprise then that the coup has been condemned from almost every side including the United Nations, African Union, European Union, US, South Africa and regional bloc ECOWAS.
and...
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/120322/mali-coup-poor-country-big-ally-against-al-qaeda
Renegade soldiers in Mali, frustrated over their government's handling of a Tuareg rebellion in the north, claimed to have seized control of this West African country in an announcement today on state television.
The news of a coup followed a day of heavy gunfire in Bamako, the capital, with soldiers taking control of the state broadcaster in what was initially described as a mutiny. Soldiers later stormed the presidential palace, and then looted it, with President Amadou Toumani Toure going into hiding at an unspecified location.
A group of around two dozen soldiers dressed in army fatigues appeared on television early today, announcing that Mali's constitution is being suspended and institutions dissolved, the Associated Press reported.
The soldiers said the country is now under control of the military's National Committee for the Reestablishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State, or CNRDR.
The coup comes one month before Mali's presidential election, in which the democratically elected Toure is due to step down.
More from GlobalPost: Mali soldiers storm state broadcaster: reports
"The CNRDR representing all the elements of the armed forces, defensive forces and security forces has decided to assume its responsibilities and end the incompetent and disavowed regime of (President) Amadou Toumani Toure," they said, reading from a prepared statement, adding that "we solemnly swear to return power to a democratically elected president as soon as national unity and territorial integrity are established."
The group's spokesman was identified on-screen as Lieutenant Amadou Konare, while its leader was said to be Captain Amadou Sanogo, who appeared briefly to announce a national curfew, Agence France-Presse reported.
This morning's TV appearance came shortly after soldiers seized the presidential palace and arrested several ministers, including Foreign Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga and Interior Minister Kafouhouna Kone.
soldiers were seen carting televisions and other goods out of the palace.
The whereabouts of President Toure, who earlier was holed up at the palace, is unclear. The BBC reported that Toure is safe and not in the custody of mutineers, while other reports placed him at an unspecified army camp.
More from GlobalPost: Mali soldiers attack presidential palace in Bamako, raising coup fears
Ecowas, the West African economic bloc, condemned the "misguided" actions of Malian soldiers and in a statement said "it will not condone any recourse to violence as a means of seeking redress."
Government troops on Wednesday had protested the lack of arms in their campaign against Tuareg rebels fighting for an independent homeland in the country's north.
The rebellion in northern Mali led by the nomadic Tuareg desert tribe is thought to have claimed dozens of lives, although Mali's government has not released an official death toll. Clashes between the rebels and government forces have displaced nearly 200,000 people.v
No comments:
Post a Comment