The president and prime minister of Mali have been arrested
by mutinous soldiers in what the European Union has described as an attempted
coup.
The president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, and the prime
minister, Boubou Cissé, were seized on Tuesday evening after a day of confusion
and chaos in a country already facing a jihadist insurgency and mass protests.
“We are able to tell you that the president and the prime
minister are under our control. We have arrested them at his [the president’s]
home,” a soldier was quoted as telling Agence France-Presse early on Tuesday
evening. The statement was confirmed by at least two security sources in
Bamako, the capital of the unstable west African country.
The EU described the mutiny as an “attempted coup” and
warned that it could destabilise “not only Mali, but the whole region”. UN
secretary-general Antonio Guterres called for the officials’ release and “the
immediate restoration of constitutional order and rule of law”.
But by Tuesday night, troops were moving freely through the
streets of Bamako, making it increasingly clear that they were in control.
The unrest began in the garrison town of Kati, about nine
miles outside Bamako, where gunfire broke out as soldiers detained senior
officers.
The reports of violence at the base immediately prompted
fears of a replay of a 2012 mutiny that led to a coup d’etat which opened the
way for Islamic extremists and ethnic separatists to exploit the chaos by
seizing swaths of territory in the north of the country.
These concerns appear to have been justified. But the scale
of the mutiny was not immediately clear, nor the exact intent of those
responsible. A European diplomat said a relatively small number of members of
the national guard, apparently angered by a pay dispute, had seized a munitions
depot, while a French military source said discussions were taking place
between Mali’s army command and the mutineers.
Keïta came to power in 2013 and won a second term as
president in 2018. But there has been rising anger at government incompetence,
endemic corruption and a deteriorating economy. Protesters took to the streets
last month when the constitutional court overturned the provisional results of
parliamentary elections held in March and April after Keïta’s party had
performed poorly.
Keïta had hoped that concessions to opponents and
recommendations from a mediating delegation of regional leaders would help stem
the tide of dissatisfaction, but the protest leaders have rejected proposals to
join a power-sharing government.
There are widespread concerns that any instability will
benefit extremists in Mali affiliated with al-Qaida and Islamic State. The
insurgents have proved tenacious, growing in strength across the Sahel region
despite the intervention of thousands of French forces, teams of US special
forces, regional armies and one of the biggest UN peacekeeping deployments in
the world.
A coup would be a major setback to French diplomacy in the
region. Mali is seen as a linchpin of efforts to secure the Sahel, and Paris
has invested heavily there despite the increasing domestic unpopularity of the
French military commitment.
An opposition politician in Bamako said Tuesday’s events
had come as a complete surprise to him and his colleagues. “This is not some
kind of thing organised with us,” he said.
Alexandre Raymakers, a senior Africa analyst at the risk
consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, said it was unlikely that the mutiny was planned
by political leaders close to the opposition, but that their supporters might
welcome any decision to remove Keïta.
“This remains a fast-moving situation, but initial
indications point to the mutiny being within the national guard, with
significant elements of the army still loyal to Keïta … The mutiny is likely
driven by a range of factors closely tied to the deteriorating military
situation in central and northern Mali, rather than the ongoing political
crisis,” he said. Guardian
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