Mali’s junta faces global backlash

President Amadou Toumani Toure to flee as they revolted against the government’s handling of a Tuareg-led insurrection in the north.
Mali’s woes are viewed as a fallout of the demise of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, which employed the nomadic Tuareg who returned armed and jobless from Libya to their homes last year and intensified a decades-long independence battle.
The military, one of the continent’s weakest according to analysts, was overwhelmed.
It has blamed the government for lack of support to battle the Tuareg rebels. Mali is also threatened with a food crisis due to drought.
The international community reacted swiftly, roundly condemning the military junta and demanding a return to civilian rule, while the World Bank and African Development Bank suspended development aid after Mali’s first coup in 21 years.
European Union ministers called yesterday for a return to constitutional rule.
“We do hope that the constitution will be restored very quickly and that we will see a return to law and order,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.
China added to the critique which has poured in from the United Nations, France and across Africa.
“We oppose unconstitutional takeover of power” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters, calling for a “return to normal order.”
In Addis Ababa, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council was planning to meet yesterday, after the continental body ordered “the mutineers immediately to put an end to their action.”
Neighbouring Niger said it was “following with concern and total disapproval the evolution of the situation in Mali,” adding that Niamey “condemned all unconstitutional changes.”
Amnesty International denounced the coup said at least three people had been shot dead, with 28 wounded, while the Red Cross in the country said it had treated 40 people for mostly bullet wounds.
A mutiny by angry soldiers turned into a full blown coup early Thursday as they attacked the presidential palace and seized state institutions before appearing on television to announce the toppling of an “incompetent” regime.
Junta spokesman Lieutenant Amadou Konare said the takeover was because of a “lack of adequate (military) material to defend the nation”.
Claiming to speak for the army, he said the junta “solemnly commits to restore power to a democratically elected president as soon as national unity and territorial integrity are re-established.”
The man presented as their leader, Captain Amadou Sanogo, declared a national curfew as the rebels announced all borders had been closed until further notice.
After widespread looting by some low-ranking soldiers, their leaders yesterday had gathered looted furniture and goods at the state broadcaster, telling people to come and collect their goods.
On Thursday president Toure was said to be in a safe location, with a member of his entourage putting him in a military barracks in the capital under protection from his elite “Red Beret” paratroopers. It is not clear if he is still there.
The mutineers appear to be largely rank-and-file green-beret soldiers and it remains unclear how tight their grip on power is.
Mali is usually seen as politically stable, but unrest in the north, where Tuareg tribes have long felt ignored by a southern government and where Al-Qaeda has also taken root, has created a major security problem. — AFP.