From the United Nations Security Council down to the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States neighbouring Mali there are demands for a return to constitutionality.

The putschists insistence that they have no interest in political power and that they will move the country to democratic elections “within a reasonable time” does not cut it.

ECOWAS states have closed their land and air borders to the landlocked state.

Presidents Muhammadu Issoufou of Niger, Macky All of Senegal, Nana Akufo Addo of Ghana and Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire are headed for Mali to impress on the group of colonels who have arrested President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his Prime Minister Boubou Cisse that they will be shunned until constitutionality is restored.

The African Union has suspended Mali’s membership in accordance with its policy of red-carding any unconstitutional change of government.

Defence of this principle is paramount at this political moment in time. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko faces opposition demands to quit after a rigged election and the nominal leader of the free world, President Donald Trump will not commit to acknowledging defeat if he loses the November election in the United States. 

With democracy under attack we are reminded that is an imperfect system. As Winston Churchill told us with stark humour it is better than all the rest. If we embrace it, recognizing the will of people is its very bedrock.

If that has been tampered with there is machinery, albeit frustratingly cumbersome and slow, to deal with it.

But moving in therapy is never the answer.

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This dates backs to precolonial times when it was part of the Malian, Ghanaian  and Songhai empires of West Africa,

Historically, the landlocked, kidney-shaped country that shades South Africa to form the continent’s eighth largest was a key trading post connecting West Africa with the Maghreb.  Its central city of Timbuktu is still celebrated as  an islamic cultural outpost on the fringe of the Muslim world.

In 1892 it became French Sudan in the scramble for Africa and briefly federated with Senegal before independence in 1960. 

First president Modibo Keita turned his back on France and declared Mali a one-party state. Its political space remained closed after a 1968 military coup and did not open until another military coup led to multi-party elections in 1992 that brought Alpha Oumar Konarè to the helm.

It will be fascinating to see what members of the United Nations Security Council make of the latest development in Bamako when they meet today.

Was yesterday’s arrest and detention of President Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse a military coup or were soldiers merely hoping to bring peace by responding to mounting civilian calls for Keita’s departure?

This will become apparent if and when the soldiers make good their undertaking to hand power to a transitional authority leading to fresh elections.

Ironically, his would entail the former French Sudan following the pattern of the latter-day Sudan after last year’s  military-led ousting of Omar Al Bashir.

The questions persist. Will yesterday’s putsch follow the 1992 military coup in boosting democracy inMali?

Or will it be a replay of the 2012 coup by Tuareg separatists in Northern Mali that led to the Islamist insurgency-still tearing at the country’s entrails?

French help was summoned then to assist and the 2013 operation Serval took three months clear out the insurgents.

France increased its military presence in Mali with Operation Barkhane – named for a desert dune blown into a crescent shape – countering Islamist terror in the Sahel.

The 4500 tricolor troops are backed by 13 300 blue-helmeted members of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali known by its French acronym MINUSMA.

There are also 620 troops of the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) and a smaller presence of the European Union Capacity Building mission (EUCB).

Mali’s Sahel neighbors Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania – comprising the so-called G5 – have deployed abut 4000 troops, still shy of the envisaged 5000 pairs of West African boots on the ground.

An unfortunate appellation has been detached to this billion dollar enterprise . It has become known as the deadliest peacekeeping operation on the planet.

This explains the frustration of Malians at their president’s inability to contain the insurgency.

The death toll of well-armed and equipped peacekeepers in Mali is easily eclipsed by the number of civilian victims of the terrorists 

If not restored to power President Keita will have at least have two memorable truisms

The first is:“What choice to I have?” when menaced by soldiers in his resignation broadcast yesterday.

The second is: “Mali is like a dam. If it is broken then Europe and the rest of Africa will be inundated”.

Clearly the EU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) fully appreciate this.

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Having that appellation confirms that the 15-nation ECOWAS is located in Africa’s roughest neighborhood.

Like neighbours living at the edge off a forest, the leaders of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo know that extinguishing a fire next door is very much a matter of self interest.

Since its formation in 1975, the grouping has had to put boots on the ground in Sierra Leone, Burundi, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia and Sudan among  others.

Eventually an ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) was formed.

It is a multidisciplinary force composed of military, police and civilian personnel from the ECOWAS Member States and it provides personnel for regional and continental Peace Support Operations Missions.

This week ECOWAS leaders met to discuss the deteriorating socio/political in Mali.

Their meeting follows unsuccessful missions led by former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and a smaller troika of leaders led by the current ECOWAS chairman Mahamadu Issoufou.

Bitter experience has taught ECOWAS leaders that if at first they don’t succeed, there is no option but to try, try and try again.

The security breakdown in Mali, which already has 13 000 UN blue helmets engaged in what is regarded as the most dangerous peacekeeping operation on the planet, follows a 2012 coup that split the country in half.

French help was called in to clear the Islamist forces that took advantage of a Tuareg insurgency in the north of the country. French led Operation Serval cleared the Islamists moving towards the capital Bamako and in terms of the succeeding Operation Burkhane 5100 French peacekeepers remain in Mali to bolster the UN force.

The inability of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is the pretext for growing calls for his departure.

This was compounded by disputed election in April.

The opposition June 5 Movement led by Mahmoud Dicko insisted that it was not interested in the reforms promised by Keita. They want him gone.

ECOWAS might have been able to watch as this political turmoil boiled.

However the security situation with Islamist terrorists taking advantage of the confusion has spread into Burkina Faso and Niger, bringing the neighbours at the edge of a forest metaphor into play.

The ECOWAS leaders were bound to defend Mali’s constitution and  could not brook opposition calls for the fall of Keita.

They did however see merit in the complaints about irregularities in last April’s elections.

They resolved to call by-elections in the 13 disputed constituencies. These include that of  the parliamentary speaker Moussa Timbiné  

They have urged the opposition to moderate their position by entering into a government of national unity within 10 days.

Backing up their call is a threat of sanctions against any party standing in the way of a solution.

Keita has dropped his insistence that Mali’s Constitutional Court has underpinned the April poll result.

He has named a slimmed down six-person executive to prepare for by-elections and met with Dicko.

This leaves the ball in the opposition court.

Opposition figure Choguel Maiga is quoted as rejecting the ECOWAS proposals and repeating the call for Keita’s departure.

An integral part of ECOWAS’ peacekeeping success is the determination to back its words with muscle.

So, what next?

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The violence-wracked West African state gambled on holding the poll during the COVID 19 pandemic hoping the poll would restore stability.

On the eve of Sunday’s election, jihadists wrecked election material in the capital Bamako and the towns of Mopti and Gao.

The first round of the poll on March 29 was disrupted by violence and the kidnapping of opposition leader Soumaila Cisse.

Yesterday the president of a polling station was removed and electoral commission officials drove off armed men threatening voters.

The observer group Synergie reports many cases of vote buying .

Turnout in the population of 19-milion was less than 25%.

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Voting began after the country announced its first coronavirus death. The country has 18 confirmed cases of COVID 19

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By noon, the voter turnout in Mali’s parliamentary election was still in single figures.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita determined to press ahead with the first poll since 2013 despite the kidnapping of opposition leader Somaila Cisse.

Civil society organisations call in vain for a postponement of the election.

Yesterday a polling officer in Timbuktu was kidnapped. 

Six candidates were kidnapped in Bamako and a polling station was ransacked in Boni.

At least 275 of the 12 500 polling stations failed to open because of intimidation.

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In two-phases the operation known as Burkhane used drones, Mirage fighter jets and combat helicopters.

France has had 5 000 troops in Mali since it drove out Islamist fighters seeking to take control eight years ago.

This operation is probably the largest since then and took place after intensive intelligence gathering and preparations.

The Franco-Malian forces concentrated on the town of  Mopti.

In addition to the 50 fatalities the Operation Burkhane forces seized weapons, ammunition and communications equipment.

The jihadis lost 30 motorbikes and two bakkies they have been using in attacks on government forces .

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France’s Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly will go to Washington this week to secure continued US support for the fight against Islamist extremists in the Sahel.

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Jihadis have used northern Mali to mount a series of attacks on that country and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

The US has supplied drone support, logistics, intelligence and transport for the so-called G5 group of Sahel countries, backed by UN and French troops, fighting terrorists.

There have been suggestions that President Donald Trump is losing interest in this battle and France Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly is heading to Washington to urge him to maintain his support.   

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He was speaking at a summit in Pau he hosted for the five countries facing increasing violence from the so-called Islamist State in Greater Sahara.

President Emmanuel Macron is concerned about the anti-French sentiment expressed in Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso about its military support for the fight against jihadis.

France has 4500 troops in the region where it stepped in to stop Mali being overrun by terrorists.

At the Pau summit he committed a further 220 troops to the operation which will now have a joint command structure.

The six countries present called on the United States to continue what they called its crucial support for their fight.

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It accuses the US leader of threatening world peace and turning his country into a rogue state.

Spokesman for Mali’s  President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita says leader’s twitter handle was temporarily pirated by persons of ill will.

The site contains a tweet saying President Donald Trump committed a f*ck up ordering the assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleiman.

That and the tweet about Trump turning the US into a rogue state were widely shared before they were deleted.

Former presidential spokesman Tiegoum Maiga  admits to posting the messages adding it was neither pirates nor hackers but a regrettable handling error.

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Some were on the  refueling truck blown up by the device and others died when the convoy come under attack by jihadis lying in wait.

The truck was travelling to Alatona near Mali’s border with Mauritania.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in attacks by Islamist insurgents since 2012, making Mali the most deadly country in which to be a peacekeeper.

More than 140 soldiers have been killed in the last quarter of 2019 in Mali.

France intervened six years ago to stop its former colony being overrun from the north.

It still has at least 1000  troops in the country supporting those from Mali’s neighbours Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad. 

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