Mali coup: why the president resigned

Protesters greet soldiers in the Malian capital Bamako — Protesters greet soldiers in capital Bamako after Mali’s controversial president was forced from office

(Image credit: 2020 Getty Images)

Mali appears to be under military control today, after the country’s president resigned and dissolved parliament.

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Both the president and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse were taken to a military camp near Bamako, Mali’s capital, by a group of soldiers calling themselves the National Committee for the Salvation of the People.

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Although Keito won a second term in 2018, his rule has been marred by “anger over corruption, the mismanagement of the economy and a dispute over legislative elections”, says the BBC. “It has prompted several large protests in recent months.”

In a televised address this morning, one of the coup leaders, air force deputy chief of staff Colonel-Major Ismael Wague, said that the military would seek to create “the best conditions for a civil political transition leading to credible general elections”.

The uprising is “a dramatic escalation of a months-long crisis” that follows a long civil war “in which ideologically-motivated armed groups have stoked ethnic tensions while jockeying for power”, says Al Jazeera.

The ousting of the government has been condemned by the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States.

“Having previously warned it would no longer tolerate military coups in the region, the bloc plans to send a delegation to Mali to ensure a return to constitutional democracy,” Reuters reports.

Holden Frith is The Week’s digital director. He also makes regular appearances on “The Week Unwrapped”, speaking about subjects as diverse as vaccine development and bionic bomb-sniffing locusts. He joined The Week in 2013, spending five years editing the magazine’s website. Before that, he was deputy digital editor at The Sunday Times. He has also been TheTimes.co.uk’s technology editor and the launch editor of Wired magazine’s UK website. Holden has worked in journalism for nearly two decades, having started his professional career while completing an English literature degree at Cambridge University. He followed that with a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. A keen photographer, he also writes travel features whenever he gets the chance.