Mali: Military Still in Charge

Former coup leader captain Amadou Haya Sanago announced on May 1 that his troops had suppressed a counter-coup by forces allegedly loyal to former president Amadou Toure. Sanago said his troops controlled the airport, the state television and radio stations, and the local army barracks. According to the press, fourteen were killed and forty were wounded.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the coup makers reached an agreement for the restoration of civilian government and the development of a timeline for elections. A civilian government has been duly installed. What is curious is that the announcement of the coup suppression was first made by Sanago, not by Dioncounda Traore, the former parliament speaker and now the interim civilian chief of state, or by Cheick Diarra, the interim prime minister, an astrophysicist and Mali and United States dual national. Subsequently, Diarra did announce publicly that the coup had not been suppressed completely, that some troops were still active.

Sanago’s soldiers also continue to make arrests. Over the past week they arrested former president Toure’s prime minister, the director general of the Malian Solidarity Bank, and two civil society leaders who opposed the coup. Others already jailed include the former minister of defense, the army chief of staff, and the national police commissioner.

It looks like the military is still in charge