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.

The post Which historical model will the Mali coup follow? appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

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.

The post Mali voters scared off voting by jihadists and coronavirus appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga was due to face a parliamentary censure vote following two attacks that killed 178 people in the past month.

Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga’s falling on is sword for the escalation in tribal and jihadi violence.

Last month 157 Fulani herders were killed in the worst attack of its kind to date.

A jihadi attack on a military base killed 23 soldiers.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is left with the headache of having to control this.

Seven years ago an alliance of Touareg separatists and jihadis seized and held a portion of the northern Mali which had to be freed with the help French forces, some of whom are still in country. 

The post Mali government quits after spike in violence appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

His opponent Soumaila Cisse maintains the run-off election was rigged and rising Islamist extremism has sparked inter-communal violence in his country.

United Nations peacekeepers backed by French and other Western troops regard Mali as their deadliest theatre of conflict in the world.

They can’t stop the deteriorating security situation demonstrated by the disruption of elections where officials were chased away from at least 500 polling stations.

The jihadis have been recruiting heavily from the Fulani tribe, causing deadly fights with the Dogon tribe, who are also losing young men to the terrorists.

Small wonder Ibrahim Boubacar Keita listed security as his number one priority in his presidential inauguration speech.

The post Tough second term ahead for Mali’s President Keita appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Counting is underway in the contest expected to be won by incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

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The Mali Citizen Observation Pool puts the turnout in the run-off election at 22 percent.

Two polling stations were torched in the West African state plagued by Islamist violence.

Electoral officials were threatened and one of them in troubled northern Mali was killed.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who attracted  41% of the vote in the first round despite his inability to quell ethnic and militant violence, is expected to prevail

His main challenger Soumalia Cisse, failed to get the endorsement of candidates who fell out  in the first round where he managed 18% of the vote.

The post Most Malians stayed away from their violent run-off presidential election appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The capital Bamako’s been on high alert since the attack with grenades and automatic weapons on a nightclub.

A dragnet by Malian security forces has failed to snag the assailants who wore masks in the attack.

A top prosecutor from Paris and 10 gendarmes have landed in Bamako to help in the hunt.

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita says the attackers of the nightclub and a UN base that killed two children and a Chadian peacekeeper will pay dearly.

The post France helping Mali hunt jihadis appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.