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Friday 23 March 2012

Mali: Coup Condemned After Border Closure

Dissident troops traded heavy gunfire with those loyal to the government in the capital, Bamako, on Wednesday night, seizing control over the presidential palace and the state broadcaster, in what started as a mutiny but turned into a coup.

By Staff Writer

BAMAKO---Dissident Malian troops who deposed President Amadou Toumani Toure in Wednesday’s mutiny have sealed off the country’s borders, attracting widespread condemnation to end the country’s first coup in 21 years.

The renegade army officers calling themselves the Committee for the Re-establishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR) led by Captain Amadou Sanogo, say the mutiny was in response to the government’s inability to give them enough arms and resources to suppress a Tuareg-led uprising in the north of Mali.

Dissident troops traded heavy gunfire with those loyal to the government in the capital, Bamako, on Wednesday night, seizing control over the presidential palace and the state broadcaster, in what started as a mutiny but turned into a coup.

Following Thursday’s statement on the national TV, spokesman of the Junta Lieutenant Amadou Konare said the newly formed CNRDR had suspended the constitution, dissolved institutions and imposed a curfew until further notice.

Lt Konare said the CNRDR had put an end to President Toure’s incompetent regime saying it “"solemnly commits to restore power to a democratically-elected president as soon as national unity and territorial integrity are re-established."

President Toure who was said to be at the palace during the storm, but managed to flee and is believed to have taken shelter in a military camp run by soldiers loyal to him, after a number of ministers including foreign minister were arrested by the Junta.

Kenya’s Foreign Minister Moses Wetang’ula who was attending an African Union meeting on peace and security is reported stranded in the country with his delegation, after the Bamako airport was declared closed.

Condemnation continue to amount on the renegade soldiers, with both the US and France calling for a peaceful resolution of the dispute. France has suspended cooperation with its former colony urging the soldiers not to harm Mr Toure.

Washington issued a statement on Thursday calling for “immediate restoration” of the constitutional rule in Mali. Ban Ki-moon, the UN's secretary-general, called for calm and for grievances to be settled democratically in a statement released hours before the soldiers said they had seized power.

The African Union has described the Coup as a “significant setback for Mali.” The World Bank and African Development Bank said they were suspending all aid until the crisis is resolved.

The Tuareg-led MLNA rebels have been fighting for autonomy in north-eastern Mali since independence, a significant transit and smuggling point in the vast desert. The recent offence has been aided by return of heavily armed and experienced Tuareg many of whom fled drought and discontent under a southern government to fight alongside the fallen Col Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya.

Nearly 195,000 people have been displaced since mid-January by the clashes involving the national army and Tuareg militants in northern Mali, creating a humanitarian disaster in a region gripped by drought and food shortages.

The government has so far refused to postpone the upcoming presidential polls set for April 29 in which Toure was due to stand down. Toure, a former paratrooper commander, came into power through a coup in 1991 and relinquished power a year later before returning to office via the ballot box in 2002 and securing re-election in 2007.

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