(Bamako) The news that Mali had foiled a coup backed by a Western state has sent waves through an already troubled country, especially as someone close to the ruling junta has been named among the plotters.
Posted at 3:52 p.m.
Even in a country that lives to the rhythm of resounding announcements, the military took Malians by surprise by saying Monday evening that the authorities had foiled on the night of May 11 to 12 a plot hatched by officers and sub- officers.
If it took place, this dark coup went completely unnoticed until the 8 p.m. news, this meeting of sensational communications which made the Sahel specialist Yvan Guichaoua say on Twitter that “the narrative of the regime Malian is a real telenovela”, TV series with twists and turns.
Having become a face and a uniform familiar to viewers, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, government spokesman, did not provide any details on the course of events or on the protagonists, contenting himself with announcing arrests.
He did not specify which was the “Western state” which would have contributed to this “unhealthy design”, and in which a majority of Malians saw France.
On Tuesday, the authorities had not produced any element giving substance to the information of the day before. Organizations supporting the junta nevertheless condemned the reported actions and called for rallying behind the authorities.
But speculation was rife on the reality of this aborted putsch, the latest of the coups or attempts in less than two years and on the analysis that should be made for this country at the heart of the Sahelian crisis.
Especially since the mysterious putsch attempt comes in full confrontation of interests between French and Westerners on the one hand, Russians on the other.
Sensitive matter
“Colonel (Amadou) Keïta is among the putschists arrested,” a Defense Ministry official said on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Colonel Keïta, although presumed to have been one of the first putschists in 2020, is not a known face among the officers who took power almost two years ago.
He is one of some 120 members of the National Transitional Council (CNT), which acts as a parliament. He is reputed to be close to the president of the CNT, Colonel Malick Diaw, who passes for number 2 or 3 of the junta.
His name appears along with six others on a list that has started spinning as those arrested in connection with the case. But one of them was actually arrested a week before May 11, her movement said.
To add to the confusion, despite the absence of any apparent link with May 11, General Moussa Bemba Keita, the last security minister of the president overthrown in 2020 by the military, was imprisoned with other officers suspected of financial embezzlement. , revealed Tuesday a magistrate on condition of anonymity.
They are the latest people to be sent behind bars in the name of the proclaimed fight against corruption.
Great discretion also characterizes the exercise of responsibilities by a junta which holds all the commands of power without virtually any opposition.
Justice had revealed a posteriori in November 2021 the existence of what it had presented as an attempted coup led by six men in the previous weeks. Among the alleged conspirators was Colonel Major Kassoum Goïta, who was one of the August 2020 putschist officers, still in power today.
Colonel Goïta, sworn in as president a few weeks earlier, emerged unscathed in July 2021 from a knife attack. His attacker died a few days later in obscure conditions.
Mali, plunged into deep security and political crises since the outbreak of independence and jihadist insurgencies in 2012 in the north, was the scene of two coups led by the same group of colonels in August 2020 and May 2021.
The junta that now leads it has turned away with a bang from France and its partners, moving closer to Russia to try to stem the spread of jihadism that has won the center and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.