Mali: Court to Decide on Interim Leader

Bamako---Mali’s highest court has met to decide on the country’s fate in filling the presidential vacuum left after democratically elected president and leader of the military Junta stepped aside following
regional brokered deal to end power struggle.

The constitutional court is set to render its decision on Mali’s new leader after the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) and the military leaders on Friday announced a deal on the transition
of power that saw both ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure and coup leader Amadou Sanogo step down.

It’s not yet clear whether the court will evoke Article 36 of the constitution under which the leader of the national assembly would assume presidency if the serving leader cannot complete his term. If
applied, head of Mali’s national assembly Diouncounda Traore will become the country’s new leader who will schedule for fresh elections within 40 days as stated.

President Toure was deposed last month by renegade army officers led by Captain Amadou Sanogo in a coup citing government’s failure to suppress Tuareg rebels now controlling the north of the country that
saw closure of its borders and suspension of the constitution and government institutions.

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 offense 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.

Under the Friday agreement the military leaders will hand over power to the new leader to pave way for immediate lift of sanctions imposed by the 15-member bloc and amnesty for those involved in the coup.
The embargo included closing of all borders of ECOWAS states with Mali except for humanitarian reasons, and also freezing of Mali’s foreign bank accounts.

The five-page deal provides a framework for restoration of the constitutional rule under the interim leadership which will also deal with the Tuareg rebellion in the north. The statement calls for creation of a transitional structure if elections will not be possible within the set out 40 days due to the Tuareg rebellion.

The dissident soldiers who still control strategic positions through out the capital, Bamako, including checkpoints at the airport and outside the state broadcaster have expressed dissatisfaction with
their leader’s decision to bow down to pressure and hand back power to civilians.

The Tuareg earlier last week declared independent the northern territory they call Azawad, following capture of the historic city of Timbuktu that saw an end to their offense.

Mogadishu, Somalia

12 Die in Market Bombing in Central Somalia

Over 12 people have been killed and more than 30 others injured in a bomb attack at a busy market in the central Somali town of Baidoa, officials have said.

Governor of Bay region, Abdifatah Ibrahim Mohamed told Reuters news agency that all the casualties were civilians, mostly women and children, except for a soldier who was slightly injured in the explosion. The Monday blast is said to be targeted at the Somali and Ethiopian peacekeeping troops who are in control of the town since its capture from the dreaded Islamist al-Shabab fighters in February.
The al-Shabab has claimed responsibility of the attack claiming casualties on the government and pe

acekeeping troops, whom they accuse of killing a number of civilians after opening fire following the
blast. The regional governor has denied the accusations.

"We planted a remotely controlled bomb in Baidoa market,” said Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al-Sh

abab's military operations. “We targeted the Ethiopian and the Somali troops. About three of them
died.”
This is the second blast in less than a week following Wednesday’s attack on the national theatre in the capital, Mogadishu, near the presidential palace, killing eight people in suicide bombing carried
out by a female.

Eyewitness in the Monday attack told reporters that the blast happened outside a butcher shop inside the town’s main market, adding that the explosions were hidden in a female shopper’s plastic bag. On Thursday
African Union peace mission for the first time deployed its troops to Baidoa, 250km north-west of Mogadishu, following the initial attack.

This is the worst attack on the southern town since the February take-over by Ethiopian forces that had served as an important recruiting and training base for the al-Qaeda linked militia, which initially had been the seat of Somali’s transitional government until al-Shabab took control of it three years ago.

The Islamist group which still controls pockets of territories in the south, said it had withdrawn its forces in a tactical retreat, threatening of a guerilla war in response after facing multiple offenses from AU forces.