Bamako, Aug 19, 2020 – Mali’s president said he was resigning to avoid “bloodshed” early Wednesday, hours after his arrest by troops in a sudden coup that followed a months-long political crisis in the fragile West African nation. Rebel soldiers detained Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse on Tuesday afternoon and drove the pair to a military base in the town of Kati, near the capital Bamako, which they had seized that morning.
Jubilant crowds in the city centre, gathered to demand Keita’s resignation, had cheered the rebels as they made their way to the 75-year-old’s official residence. Keita appeared calm as he appeared in a state television broadcast after midnight to declare the dissolution of the government and national assembly, and said he had no choice but to resign with immediate effect. “If it pleased certain elements of our military to decide this should end with their intervention, do I really have a choice?” he said of the day’s events. “(I must) submit to it, because I don’t want any bloodshed.” It was unclear whether Keita was still in custody at the Kati base, which in a twist of fate was also the site of the 2012 putsch that brought the 75-year-old to power.
Neighbouring states, France and the European Union all warned against any unconstitutional transfer of power as the coup played out on Tuesday. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres demanded the “immediate and unconditional release” of Keita and Cisse as diplomats in New York said the Security Council would hold emergency talks on Wednesday. The Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) condemned the coup in a statement, pledging to close land and air borders to Mali and push for sanctions against “all the putschists and their partners and collaborators”.
The 15-nation bloc — which includes Mali — also said that it would suspend the country from its internal decision-making bodies. As the day unfolded, the United States and France released separate statements voicing deep concern about the turn of events and urged against regime change.
French President Emmanuel Macron had also discussed the crisis with his counterparts in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal and expressed his “full support for the ongoing mediation efforts of West African states”. His office had added that he condemned” the mutiny. The US envoy to the region J. Peter Pham joined the calls for restraint and echoed its opposition to any “extraconstitutional” change.
‘Shifts in mood’
Keita and Cisse’s sudden detention came on the heels of an apparently conciliatory message from the government in Bamako — which had urged the soldiers to engage in dialogue. “The observed shifts in mood reflect a certain frustration that may have legitimate causes,” Cisse’s office said in a statement, without offering further details. It added that the government was open to “fraternal dialogue in order to remove all misunderstandings”.
The drama coincided with opposition plans to resume protests against Keita. Mali had been in the grip of a deep political impasse since June, and Keita had faced increasingly strident demands for his resignation. The June 5 Movement, named for the date of its first protest, has channelled deep anger over a dire economy, perceived government corruption and a brutal jihadist conflict.
The opposition alliance’s anti-Keita campaign veered into crisis last month when at least 11 people were killed over three days of unrest that followed a demonstration.
Rising tensions
Mali is the linchpin of French-led efforts to roll back jihadists in the Sahel, and its neighbours are anxious to avoid the country sliding into chaos. Swathes of its territory are already outside of the control of the government, which is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that first emerged in 2012 and has claimed thousands of lives. The failure to end that conflict fuelled frustrations with Keita’s rule, analysts say.
Tensions flared in April when the government held a long-delayed parliamentary election, the results of which are still disputed. ECOWAS last month suggested the formation of a unity government while sticking by Keita, but the compromise was bluntly rejected by the opposition.
AFP
Profile of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who resigned Wednesday after being detained in a coup launched by mutinous troops, long relied on an uncompromising image to project command over his West African country. But the man who won election in a landslide in 2013 and was re-elected five years later was left flailing by jihadist and inter-ethnic violence that has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. Snail-paced political reforms, a flagging economy, decrepit public services and schools, and a widely shared perception of government corruption also fed anti-Keita sentiment, driving tens of thousands of protesters into the streets. The 75-year-old was until this week able to shrug off criticism from a divided opposition, partly relying on support from the international community, which has seen him as a bulwark against the jihadist threat. But the coronavirus pandemic and the kidnapping of opposition leader Soumaila Cisse by jihadists in March made severe inroads into Keita’s standing. The political veteran known as IBK is described variously by his entourage as generous, irascible and divisive. The son of a civil servant, Keita was born in the southern industrial city of Koutiala, the declining heartland of cotton production. After studying literature in Mali, Senegal and France — his great-grandfather was a French colonial soldier who died in the Battle of Verdun in World War I — Keita became an adviser for the EU’s overseas development fund before heading a development project in northern Mali. He campaigned against general Moussa Traore, Mali’s former president ousted in 1991 by a military coup. He then rose through the ranks under Alpha Oumar Konare, the country’s first democratically elected president. As a socialist prime minister between 1994 and 2000, he quelled a series of crippling strikes, earning a reputation as a firm leader and helping to set up his landslide election in 2013 — when he finally ascended to the presidency after losing runs in 2002 and 2007. He had campaigned as a unifying figure in his fractured country, belying his tough-talking reputation. Keita was re-elected in 2018, defeating Cisse. Rumours regularly surface about Keita’s health, which he has also dismissed: “It may surprise a lot of people, but I feel perfectly fine.”
Keita appeared calm as he appeared in a state television broadcast after midnight to declare the dissolution of the government and national assembly, and said he had no choice but to resign with immediate effect. “If it pleased certain elements of our military to decide this should end with their intervention, do I really have a choice?” he said of the day’s events. “(I must) submit to it, because I don’t want any bloodshed.” It was unclear whether Keita was still in custody at the Kati base, which in a twist of fate was also the site of the 2012 putsch that brought him to power.
Rebel troops seized Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse in a dramatic escalation Tuesday of a months-long crisis. Neighbouring states in West Africa, along with France, the European Union and the African Union, condemned the sudden mutiny and warned against any unconstitutional change of power in the fragile country. The UN Security Council will hold emergency talks on the crisis on Wednesday, diplomats in New York said. “We can tell you that the president and the prime minister are under our control” after they were “arrested” at Keita’s residence in the capital Bamako, a rebel leader, who requested anonymity, told AFP. Boubou Doucoure, who works as Cisse’s director of communications, confirmed that the pair had been detained and had been driven in armoured vehicles to an army base in the town of Kati, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) away. Mutineering troops had seized the base hours earlier before taking control of the surrounding streets and driving in convoy to the capital Bamako, according to an AFP journalist. A 2012 putsch that opened the way to Keita’s presidency began in the Kati base — and fears quickly grew of another coup attempt in the notoriously unstable country.
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