ABUJA, Nigeria – The leaders of the coup that ousted Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita spent most of the year training in Russia before returning to oust the democratically elected leader at gunpoint, according to sources in the Malian army.
The rebels on Tuesday seized control of Mali’s largest military base in Kati, just outside the capital Bamako, before storming Keita’s official residence, seizing the president and forcing him to resign as leader of the West African nation.
Numerous media outlets, including the BBC, immediately reported that the coup was led by Malick Diaw and Sadio Camara, two army colonels who hold top positions in Kati’s military base and who are relatively close friends. But there is something else that both men have in common – they were trained by the army in Russia.
Two Malian military officials told The Daily Beast that both Diaw and Camara were in Russia before returning to Mali to reverse Tuesday’s coup, a local media report confirmed. The two officers are said to have been to Bamako earlier this year to Moscow to attend military training sponsored by the Russian army, they arrived a little over a week before the coup was carried out.
Sources in the Malian army told The Daily Beast that a number of senior officers suspected that Diaw and Camara were planning the coup from Russia and that both men had been in contact with others involved in the plot of their training base abroad. Rumors that some officers were planning a coup began to spread quietly in the army in early August, even before the two colonels returned home.
“A coup of this nature is not what you are planning in a few days,” a lieutenant in the Malian army, who had previously served in Kati, told The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity because he did not authorize was to speak.
“These two men spent a long time in Russia and within days of their return they easily and successfully carried out a coup,” said the lieutenant, who was not involved in the plot. “That should tell you that they worked this long.”
It is not yet clear if Diaw and Camara sought military assistance or cover from Russia, which has intervened in the elections of a number of African leaders in recent years.
Some military officials do not rule out Russia’s direct involvement. “Perhaps in terms of communication, they have received protection from the Russians,” the army lieutenant said. “It will be assumed that the Russians would have controlled their lines of communication since the officers were foreign military personnel in Russia.”
Just before noon on Tuesday, soldiers loyal to Diaw, the second highest-ranking officer at the Kati military base, took control of the camp’s army and began arresting its superiors. Once in control of the base, they went to Bamako, where they arrested President Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and rode the two men back to the base before forcing them to relinquish power.
At the time of the coup, Diaw, who was apparently in his late 30s, was the deputy chief of Kati’s military base, a position he is said to have held for more than a year. has clothed. His role in Tuesday’s coup probably earns him an influential position in the junta.
Camara, the co-leader of the coup, previously took the lead over Kati’s military academy. BBC Afrique, quoting a local news outlet, reported that he was born in 1979. He was director of the Kati Military Academy for many years until January when he left the post to pursue military training in Russia alongside Diaw. He returned to Bamako from Moscow about a week ago to begin a month-long love affair and, unknown to many, to carry out a coup.
“There were only a few people who knew they were back from their journey,” a Malian army colonel, who was not involved in the coup, told The Daily Beast. “[It was] mostly those close to them and who plotted the coup with the two officers [that knew they had returned from Russia]. “
Russia has a reputation for swooping in African countries and hopes to reform its policy for material gain; a candidate backed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian financier accused in the U.S. of directing the 2016 presidential election, has emerged as the president of Madagascar; a former Russian intelligence officer is now the top security adviser to the president of the Central African Republic; and the Kremlin has been caught up in the domestic politics of eight African countries through social media networks that have been passed on to entities linked to Prigozhin.
It is not yet clear how the Malian coups plan to lead the country they now rule as a military junta, or if they will invite assistance from Moscow.
On Wednesday, Assimi Goita, a colonel in Mali’s army, announced that he had taken the lead over the country and declared himself the head of the junta. Goita – one of five soldiers who announced the coup on state broadcaster ORTM – met with senior government officials he urged to return to work immediately.
“By making this intervention, we have placed Mali first,” Goita explained to officials, while trying to justify Keita’s powerful removal.
Prior to the coup, he was the head of a special military unit based in central Mali and had participated in the annual Flintlock training organized by the U.S. Army to help countries in the Sahel region better target the militants. packages.
“Mali is in a socio-political and security crisis,” he said. “There is no more room for error.”
Tuesday’s effort could turn out to be an even bigger mistake. A similar coup in 2012, which began on the same Kati army base, caused national disharmony and political uncertainty. That allowed extremist groups to expand their reach in northern Mali. Despite a French military intervention that has slowed their progress, these groups of jihadists are still active in the region and can capitalize on the current leadership crisis to extend their jihad, remains to be seen what the Kremlin will do about that threat .
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