Tag Archives: Amadou Toumani Toure

Food stocks low, fuel hard to find: Mali’s misfortunes worsen as al-Qaeda arrives

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

The Times

Mali’s two-week-old junta rejected international calls to relinquish power yesterday as sanctions intended to force the new regime to step down began to bite and Islamists cemented their grip in the country’s turbulent north.

In his first comments since the embargo was imposed, the coup leader, Captain Amadou Sanogo, warned that the ousted president, Amadou Toumani Toure, could be charged with “high treason and financial wrongdoing”. He announced that a meeting to discuss Mali’s future would take place tomorrow.

Amid fears that Islamic extremists were taking advantage of the political upheaval, three of al-Qaeda’s leaders were said to have headed to the ancient trading city of Timbuktu, where Sharia was being imposed and women were being told to wear veils. Continue reading →

Fall of Timbuktu to rebels prompts fears for historic treasures

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

The Times

Rebels in Mali completed their capture of the biggest population centres in the north of the country yesterday by taking the historic trading town of Timbuktu.

Its capitulation, eight days after a coup by junior officers in the capital, Bamako, which overthrew the democratically elected Government, marks the latest gain in a three-day advance by the Tuareg rebels. The junta said that it was seeking to negotiate a peace deal with the rebels and sent representatives to discuss a ceasefire.

The Tuareg forces, thought to be about 1,000, have exploited the uncertainty caused by the overthrow of the Government of President Amadou Toumani Touré, which has left the army with no clear chain of command. Continue reading →

Mali à l’aise

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

The Economist

Mali’s coup leaders tighten their hold but inspire little confidence

IF ANYONE knows what is happening in Mali, it should be Captain Amadou Sanogo. Sliding forward on the shiny beige sofa into which he has sunk, he insists that things are moving “as I want. Moving as I prepared…allowing me to engage, to start with my processes.” Yet the 40-year-old officer with a sandpaper rasp seems to be putting a brave face on what looks, in fact, like an accidental coup that was almost invited by the government it toppled.

Captain Sanogo is the leader of the putsch that deposed Amadou Toumani Touré, a two-term president, on March 22nd. In the cantonment town of Kati, in the hills north of Bamako, new furniture is going into freshly whitewashed buildings, and visitors jostle to meet members of the ponderously named National Committee for the Recovery of Democracy and Restoration of the State.

The junta appears to be making up policy as it goes. It speaks of building a stronger army capable of serving the wider Sahel region, and has issued a 69-article constitution that empowers a council of 26 soldiers and 15 civilians to rule for a transition period of undefined length. Although protesters took to Bamako’s streets demanding a return to democracy, and various public figures connected to the upturned political system have denounced the coup, counter-demonstrations have voiced enthusiastic support. There seems to be enough disillusionment with Mr Touré’s government for many Malians to withhold judgment on the junta. Graft, increased perceptions of corruption and allegations of government involvement in smuggling drugs and arms mean that few are sad to see the back of Mr Touré, who had already foiled two earlier coup plots in 2010. Continue reading →

Mali’s Coup Leader: Interview with an Improbable Strongman

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

TIME.com

Captain Amadou Sanogo does not sound or look like the man in charge. But he is now the only show in town in a country beset by multiple crises

Under a sickle moon a large man with dreadlocks, a sparkling purple cloak and white moccasins climbed the stairs of the house that has become Mali’s new nerve-center. He was a marabout — a West Africa holy man — summoned by the 40-year-old army captain everyone in Kati is now calling le President. The new power in Mali is Amadou Sanogo, a career soldier whose improbable coup d’etat has upturned one of Africa’s strongest democracies. On Monday night he sought strength from the spirit world. He needs whatever help he can get.

It is a week since Sanogo led a mutiny at the garrison in Kati — a sleepy commune of cinder-block bungalows just north of the capital — that intensified into a coup. Swiftly condemned by the international community for daring to upset a rare — if perhaps superficial — African success story, Sanogo and his junta, the self-importantly named Comite national pour le redressement de la democratie et la restauration de l’ Etat (CNRDRE for short), must work out quickly how to cope with a sudden halt in economic and military assistance at a time when Tuareg rebels wage a devastating blitzkrieg in the north, protesters march and public figures bewail democracy’s death.

At the two-story house in Kati, formerly the camp commandant’s headquarters, Sanogo meets with a flurry of diplomats, soldiers and power-brokers, who wait on a first-floor verandah lined with ornamental plants. He smiles bashfully as he shakes the Algerian ambassador’s hand, as though he’s still growing into the role he’s plucked for himself. There’s a hint of the young Vladimir Putin, trying to project a persona that’s bigger than he is, and it’s easy to see why his American mentors (he attended multiple training programs in the U.S.) never marked him out as future leadership material as, apparently, is the case. Continue reading →

Leader of military junta aims to restore Mali’s army

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

The Times

The leader of the military junta that seized power in Mali last week has told The Times that his priority is restoring the nation’s army, reeling after a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of Tuareg rebels, and turn it into a force for stability across West Africa’s Sahel region.

In an interview at his headquarters in the cantonment town of Kati, Captain Amadou Sanogo said that if he can “get a better life for my soldiers, I get a well-prepared army, I get a proficient army ready to serve my country, to serve the Sahel region”, he would consider his leadership a sucess.

However, as he was speaking about 1,000 protesters took to the streets of Bamako, the capital, chanting “Down with Sanogo” and demanding the restoration of democracy. Mali had been due to hold elections next month. Continue reading →

As the U.S. and al-Qaeda Watch Mali’s Phony Peace, Tension Mounts in Timbuktu

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

TIME.com

Several interested parties await the outcome as a once-healthy democracy descends into conflict between military mutineers and their president

Pick-ups packed with soldiers zoomed toward the maize-colored building that houses the State broadcaster as rumors flew of more civil strife in Mali. There was a counter-coup. No, there wasn’t a counter-coup. The leader of the mutiny was dead. No, Capt. Amadou Sanogo would appear in a broadcast momentarily.

As soldiers looted petrol stations, hijacked cars and went joyriding, I had my own run-in with trouble. A rangy-looking man with knotted stubble snatched a tattered banknote from my hand as I bought a soda. “There are no police,” the thief snarled, angrily, as we came close to blows. “You, I’m going to kill you,” he shouted. It was one of countless incidents underscoring the security vacuum in Mali, until three days ago one of Africa’s best functioning democracies.

Some of that anxiety receded over the course of Saturday, with shops re-opening for business, and a semblance of normality in Bamako’s grand marche, where hairdressers’ were packed, shopkeepers traded good-natured insults with each other and TIME saw one fashion-conscious diva batting her false eyelashes in the air as a beautician applied henna to her hands. Continue reading →

Mali-drama

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

The Economist

A coup in Mali

AS THOUSANDS of inhabitants of Mali’s normally sleepy capital, Bamako, flooded south over the Bridge of Martyrs to the comparative safety of the River Niger’s right bank on Wednesday afternoon, a man in a flowing robe and skull cap cut a stubborn figure as he walked the other way. “This is how civil wars start,” he said after a Kalashnikov round whipped overhead.

Civil strife is looking considerably more likely in Mali since renegade soldiers, gendarmes (paramilitary police) and police seized control of Bamako. They have so far failed to capture President Amadou Toumani Touré. Mali’s leader is reported to be holed up at an army barracks outside town, under the protection of a crack team of “Red Beret” paratroopers who have remained loyal to him.

The spark for the mutiny came during a visit to Bamako’s main barracks by Mali’s defence minister. For weeks, discontent has been building as ethnic Tuareg rebels—flush with heavy weaponry stolen from Libya, and better organised than at any time in the past—have launched a series of attacks, sacking beleaguered garrisons and inflicting heavy casualties on the demoralised Malian army. Continue reading →

West’s ally in volatile region is rocked by soldier’s revolt

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

The Times

Within 24 hours Mali’s stable democracy has reached the brink of civil war, reports Julius Cavendish in Bamako

Mali was on the brink of civil war last night after mutinous soldiers led by a cadre of young officers seized the capital, Bamako, but failed to corner President Touré, who regrouped outside the city with a crack unit of paratroopers.

The renegade soldiers, angered by the Government’s failure to arm them to fight Tuareg rebels, stormed the presidential palace overnight, arresting senior members of the Cabinet.

Some troops fuelled by alcohol then went on a rampage, looting the palace, which bestrides limestone cliffs overlooking the centre of Bamako, and carting off flat-screen televisions, computer monitors and photocopiers. Continue reading →

Mali: Big Trouble in a Poor Country Awash in Post-Gaddafi Weapons

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

TIME.com

Renegade soldiers claim to have overthrown the government as the president claims otherwise. Meanwhile, rebels armed with Libyan firepower watch and wait

To the clatter of gunfire and under the cover of darkness the president who ushered Mali into an unprecedented era of multiparty democracy fled the West African country’s sleepy capital Bamako last night as an army mutiny rapidly escalated into a full-blown coup attempt. The renegade soldiers had claimed to have seized the country after storming the presidential palace during the night. But President Amadou Toumani Toure’s reappearance at a nearby military cantonment, apparently at the head of a crack bodyguard of ‘Red Beret’ paratroopers, now leaves Mali on the brink of a civil war — apart dealing with the thorny Tuareg rebellion that helped precipitate the military uprising. In less than 24 hours one of Africa’s most stable democracies has turned upside down.

Across Bamako, growing numbers of the military, gendarmerie and police switched sides, locking down the capital, firing sporadically and establishing roadblocks. Shops stayed shuttered, crowds stood uneasily on street corners, and old men in traditional robes lounged in deck chairs as they waited for news. “Pow, pow-pow,” said Abdoulai, a taxi driver, mimicking gunfire as troops insouciantly loosed off rounds to cow the population. Gendarmes commandeered a silver station wagon; a soldier strolled casually down a half-deserted street, can of coke in his hand; and a policeman riding pillion behind a driver on a moped flashed a V-sign and shouted: “We’ve won.”(MORE: On the Scene as Soldiers Target the Government)

In fact, the situation is a lot less certain than that. Around noon on Thursday, news emerged that President Toure had successfully slipped past the renegade assault on the presidential palace, which bestrides a limestone cliff overlooking the center of Bamako, and was regrouping at Kati, the barracks where the mutiny began Wednesday morning. He is, however, without several key senior government members who are under lock and key Meanwhile, mutinies continue to take place across the country. Former colonial power France, which retains close links to Mali, said it was suspending military assistance and called for the restoration of the constitution, which the mutineers suspended overnight. The U.S. and the European Union echoed that call, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for grievances to be settled democratically. The African Union said it was “deeply concerned by the reprehensible acts currently being perpetrated by some elements of the Malian army.” Continue reading →

Mutiny in Mali: On the Ground as Soldiers Target the Government in Bamako

Posted by Julius Cavendish on

TIME.com

In one direction sped a tan-colored ambulance, red crescent glistening on its side as it wailed north across the Bamako’s Bridge of Martyrs toward the sound of gunfire. In the other came people. Hundreds, if not thousands of them, women with their market goods bundled atop their heads, young men talking little and walking quickly, green buses packed with young and old, escaping the army mutiny that shattered the peace of Mali’s laid-back capital.

Some of the residents broke into short, furtive runs as they carried what belongings they could on their backs. Amid the throng came fleets of Bamako’s ubiquitous mopeds, spluttering over the bridge, passengers riding pillion on every one of them. I looked wishfully for a taxi—none came—before starting out after the ambulance on foot, toward the River Niger’s left bank, where smoke had started to rise over the headquarters of the State broadcaster and was now mingling with the pall of dust that had lain over the city all day.

A clatter of machine gun fire greeted me at the far side and sent half a dozen women in brightly colored kangas scuttling behind the low concrete balustrade protruding from the bridge. A white pick-up, overloaded with men in tan uniforms and black flak jackets emblazoned with the word “Police,” snarled south, in the same direction as the fleeing inhabitants. It was impossible to tell if they were government loyalists or mutineers but they bristled with weaponry, assault rifles and RPGs.

Continue reading →