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This African Country Has Had Enough of Bungling Politicians

This African Country Has Had Enough of Bungling Politicians

The military coup in Mali raised alarm across West Africa, a region under threat for years from Islamist militants that can ill afford more instability. Yet at home, it’s largely seen as a harbinger of progress.

Weeks of public unrest and the final ouster of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was the culmination of anxiety over his failure to steer the nation to recovery after a 2012 putsch that enabled extremists to gain a foothold in the north. It also exposed a deep-rooted distrust of Mali’s political class in a country that’s experienced four coups since independence from France in 1960.

Soldiers seized Keita after weeks of massive street protests in the capital, Bamako, fueled by corruption scandals, a sluggish economy, disputed parliamentary elections and a worsening security situation. After a few hours in detention, Keita, 75, resigned.

This African Country Has Had Enough of Bungling Politicians

“The armed forces see it as their role to protect the constitution when something goes wrong,” said Marc-Andre Boisvert, an independent researcher on civil-military relations in the Sahel. “The notion of a ‘corrective coup’ has been present in African coups since independence, but there’s been an upsurge since the 1990s.”

While Mali’s army has been largely ineffectual in containing Islamist insurgents, the politicians have taken the blame for the torrent of attacks wreaking havoc in the interior. Despite a tripling in military spending from 2012 to 2020 — defense now consumes a fifth of the budget — army officers said they were being sent to the front line with poor training and scant resources.

There’s also been evidence of mismanagement. In 2013, the government bought socks for its soldiers at a staggering $63 a pair, according to the general auditor.

“Malians have seen that politicians aren’t able to solve the country’s problems,” said Sidiki Guindo, director of a Bamako-based polling institute known as Gisse. “They believe that a military-led transition will be stricter, more rigorous, and will put people to work.”

Even though foreign leaders from Europe to South Africa have urged the junta to hold elections and return power to a civilian administration, many Malians want the army to stay. A Gisse survey this week showed that 57% of Malians want soldiers and civilians to lead a transitional government, and 26% prefer a military-led transition. Only 16% of respondents said the new government should be run by civilians.

This African Country Has Had Enough of Bungling Politicians

“I would define last week’s events as a popular uprising, not as a coup,” said Fatimata Kane, who works at a Bamako-based non-government educational organization know as CAEB. “The soldiers just did what the people wanted. They should be allowed to stay long enough to push through reforms — maybe they can bring a bit of order into the administration.”

The junta has suggested it may seek a referendum on constitutional changes that will help bolster the credibility of elections.

“The problems are huge,” junta spokesman Ismael Wague told French broadcaster TV5 on Aug. 27. “We need a transition period that allows us to address these issues and at least begin to put a new structure in place. We also aim to secure the whole country.”

Still, some analysts fear the political turmoil will be exploited by jihadists. Deadly raids continue both in Mali and across its borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, and large swathes of the semi-arid Sahel region are now too dangerous to travel. Nearly 2,000 people were killed  in the first seven months of 2020, the highest toll since the crisis began in 2012, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

This African Country Has Had Enough of Bungling Politicians

Unlike previous coup makers in Mali, the current junta of five officers engaged the international community quickly. Their leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, 37, heads a special military unit based in the central Mopti region and participated in the U.S military training exercise Flintlock last year. They immediately started talks with the West African bloc Ecowas and asking the United Nations, which has 15,000 peacekeepers in the country, and France to stay.

France is deeply involved in Mali and the wider Sahel region, with a special 5,000-strong force estimated to cost about 600 million euros ($715 million) annually. Known as Barkhane, the mission has killed several key jihadist commanders and works together with the UN and the Malian army.

Back in Bamako, the security threat has taken a back seat to the political crisis.

“What we need now is time to implement reforms before holding elections,” said Abdoulaye Pona, the head of the chamber of mines in Mali, sub-Saharan Africa’s third-biggest producer of the metal. “A three-year transition period with soldiers and civilians is probably necessary.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.