08/18/2020 - 19:54
- Clarín.com
- World
In the midst of a climate of confusion, incessant rumors and growing tension, a group of soldiers rose up against the Malian government on Tuesday and announced that it had overthrown it and detained the country's highest authorities.
The alleged coup was condemned by several countries, when the whereabouts of the president and prime minister was uncertain .
"President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse are under our control," reported one of the leaders of the mutinous military, who were identified as General Cheick Fanta Mady Dembélé and Colonels Diaw and Mama Sekou Lelenta.
The coup leader added that the country's two highest political authorities were detained at the residence of the ousted president in Bamako, the capital of Mali.
However, another military officer who identified himself as a coup leader assured the press, on condition of anonymity, that the president and prime minister were being transferred in an armored vehicle to Kati, a city near the military base where the uprising began.
Masked soldiers in the iconic Independence Square in Bamako, Mali, this Tuesday Photo: AFP
Without an official announcement, rumors about the whereabouts of the highest authorities of the internationally recognized government multiplied, as did the versions about the true compliance with the military uprising among the Armed Forces of the African country.
According to the French daily Le Monde , public radio and television were evacuated in the morning to guarantee the safety of the workers, after Prime Minister Cissé publicly asked the mutinous military to open a dialogue and stop the uprising.
But this call did not work and while the rebel military announced the arrest of the country's top political leaders , hundreds of people began to gather around the Independence Monument, in a square in the heart of Bamako to support the coup and ask for the resignation of the president .
That same square has been the epicenter of anti-government protests since last June. The protesters accuse the authorities of corruption and having worsened insecurity.
The protests in Mali against the government have been going on for several months. Photo: AFP
The official Malian media, which for hours have broadcast canned programs and music, did echo the exchange of gunfire at the Kati base , but without speaking of a coup.
Given that the coup plotters have not spoken publicly, their intentions and objectives are unknown, but their movement occurs at a time of great instability in Mali, with constant mass movements in the streets demanding the departure of President Keita, in power. since 2013, and the organization of new elections.
The Kati military base also has a special symbolism for the recent political history of the country.
In 2012, a group of military officers rose up there and overthrew then-President Amadou Toumani Touré and created a power vacuum in the north of the country that allowed the advance of Islamist militia groups, which in turn prompted France to send troops to his former colony.
Today the French soldiers are still there and Paris has a strong political, economic and military influence in the African country.
The French Chancellor, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was one of the first to condemn "this serious event as harshly as possible" and called on the rebelling military to "reconsider", according to the newspaper Le Monde.
French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, communicated with several African leaders to discuss the situation and supported a possible mediation by the Economic Community of West African States (Cedeao), a body that warned in a statement its "rejection of any unconstitutional political change. "
In addition to France and Cedeao, the African Union and the United States condemned the military uprising.
Source: EFE and DPA
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