Mali coup leaders pledge election 'reasonably' soon
People cheer Mali army soldiers at Independence Square after a coup in the capital, Bamako, on Tuesday. Mali’s president resigned and dissolved parliament on the same day.
Soldiers who ousted Mali’s president and government in a military coup promised yesterday to oversee elections within a “reasonable” time, as calls from abroad grew for a peaceful resolution to an acute political crisis.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resigned and dissolved parliament on Tuesday, hours after the mutineers detained him at gunpoint, further destabilizing a country already in the grip of a jihadist insurgency and with a recent history of civil unrest.
The 15-nation regional Economic Community of West African States acted quickly to suspend Mali, fearing Keita’s fall after nearly seven years in power could destabilize West Africa’s entire Sahel region.
As investors ditched shares in gold companies in the country while a sense of calm pervaded the capital Bamoko, it was still not clear early yesterday who was leading the revolt.
A spokesman for the mutineers, calling themselves the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, said they had acted to prevent Mali from further chaos.
Colonel Ismael Wague invited Mali’s civil society and political movements to join to create conditions for a political transition.
“Our country is sinking into chaos, anarchy and insecurity mostly due to the fault of the people who are in charge of its destiny,” he said, flanked by soldiers on state-owned television.
“We are not keen on power, but we are keen on the stability of the country, which will allow us to organize general elections to allow Mali to equip itself with strong institutions within the reasonable time limit.”
There was no immediate reaction to Wague’s offer from the opposition and leaders of recent protests, as the presidency of the G5 Sahel group of neighboring states called on Malians to resolve the crisis peacefully, and demanded the release of Keita and other senior officials.
European Union Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton said the bloc would insist on new elections within a reasonable time frame.
In a violent run-up to the coup following months of protests against alleged corruption, at least 14 people were killed last month in demonstrations called by a coalition Keita’s political opponents and activists.
Referring to ECOWAS’s inability to broker a solution, followed by its firm reaction to Tuesday’s events, a diplomatic source in the region said he feared ECOWAS had “burned its bridges.”
“We need a negotiated solution. But who will negotiate with (the mutineers)?” the source said.
Landlocked Mali has struggled to regain stability since a Tuareg uprising in 2012 which was hijacked by Islamist militants linked to al-Qaida, and a subsequent coup in the capital plunged the country into chaos.
