Mali Coup Leaders Promise Elections in ‘Reasonable’ Time
Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2020 11:34 amSoldiers who toppled Mali’s president in a coup Tuesday have appeared on state television and pledged to hold elections within what they call a “reasonable” time.
The coup leaders spoke Wednesday as calls mounted abroad for a restoration of constitutional order in Mali. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the coup in a statement, as did U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the West African bloc ECOWAS and the African Union.
A spokesman for the coup leaders, who call themselves the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, said they took action to avoid further anarchy and insecurity in Mali.
Colonel Ismael Wague said the soldiers are eager for stability rather than power and plan to organize general elections in a timeframe that Wague did not specify.
FILE - Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita appears on state television to announce his resignation, Aug. 18, 2020.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resigned late Tuesday, hours after he was arrested by mutinous soldiers following months of political turmoil in the West African nation.
Wearing a surgical mask in recognition of the coronavirus pandemic, a weary-looking Keita appeared on state television to announce he was stepping down in order to avoid any bloodshed.
The 75-year-old deposed leader said if “certain elements” of the military wanted to end his presidency, with “their intervention, do I really have a choice?” Keita also announced that his government and the National Assembly would be dissolved.
Keita’s resignation capped a day of turmoil that began when soldiers seized weapons from an army base in the town of Kati and advanced on the capital of Bamako. A reporter in Mali told VOA’s English to Africa service that the soldiers ““went on the rampage, got to the arsenals, got the guns, started shooting in the air, went out and cut off access to the camp.”
Scores of anti-government protesters gathered in Bamako’s central square to cheer on the soldiers as they made their way to Keita’s house to arrest him.
FILE - Malian soldiers celebrate as they arrive at Independence Square in Bamako, Aug. 18, 2020.
The soldiers arrested Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse at Keita’s house and drove them back to Kati, the same camp where the 2012 coup that overthrew President Amadou Toumani Toure began. The overthrow of Toure allowed Islamist militants to temporarily seize the northern half of Mali until a French-led military intervention drove them from power.
Mali has been mired in months of protests led by the opposition June 5 Movement over an economic crisis, corruption and Keita’s failure to quell the eight-year-old Islamic insurgency. Anger also brewed over the results of 31 legislative races, held in April, that remain in dispute.
Violent clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces last month left at least 14 protesters dead and another 154 injured.
The Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, sealed its member states’ borders with Mali after Keita’s and Cisse’s arrests and suspended all financial transactions between Mali and its 14 other members. For now, ECOWAS is removing Mali from its decision-making bodies.
FILE - A man wears a national flag as he celebrates with others in the streets in the capital Bamako, Mali, Aug. 18, 2020.
ECOWAS officials have called for sanctions on those it calls “putschists and their partners and collaborators.”
J. Peter Pham, the U.S. envoy to the Sahel region, issued a statement saying Washington is opposed to any “extra-constitutional change.”
Pompeo called for “peaceful dialogue” to resolve the Malian crisis and said the freedom and safety of detained government officials and their families must be ensured. Keita apparently remained in the soldiers’ custody on Wednesday.
At the United Nations, France and Niger called for a closed-door meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday.
Dan Joseph and Richard Green contributed to this report.