Politics
Delegation of 5 West African presidents to Mali in bid to reverse coup
In the chaos that ensued, soldiers stormed the presidential palace. The whereabouts of President Amadou Toumani Toure, who was due to step down after elections next month, are unknown but he is said to be unharmed.
Besides the threat of military intervention, Mali’s neighbors could suffocate the nation financially. Many of the 15 nations represented on the regional bloc share the same currency, and they could together decide to cut off Mali’s supply of cash. Also if nearby Ivory Coast were to shut its border, landlocked Mali, a nation twice the size of Texas spanning over an expanse of scrubland, verdant hills and desert dunes, would run out of gasoline which is trucked in from Ivorian refineries.
But the thousands marching Wednesday said they trusted the junta, and called on ECOWAS to reconsider.
“The junta came to save Mali,” said interpreter Eric Koite. “ECOWAS won’t dare force Capt. Sanogo from power because he is an expression of the will of the people.”
Sidi Ahmed Diallo, a sociologist, said: “If ECOWAS really wants to help us, then they should help us secure our territory. There are the rebels in the north of the country and if they like they can intervene there.”
In 1991, Toure ousted the country’s military leader in a coup that came after months of protests. The former general was dubbed “The Soldier of Democracy” after he handed power to civilians a year later, then retreated from public life. He remerged to win the 2002 and 2007 elections, and was due to retire at the end of his term.
Toure began losing support when an al-Qaida-linked terror cell implanted itself in northern Mali starting in 2003. He is accused of turning a blind eye, while diplomatic cables suggest the government entered into a pact of nonaggression with the terrorists for fear they would strike the capital in revenge.
