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Habibou Kouyate / AFP - Getty Images
Mali soldiers gather on a Bamako street Wednesday. Scores of Malian soldiers mutinied, firing shots in the air and seizing the state broadcaster amid fury over their poorly-equipped efforts to stamp out a Tuareg insurgency in the north.
Updated at 10:47 a.m. ET: Renegade Malian soldiers went on state television on Thursday to declare they had seized power in a coup after the government's failure to quell a nomad-led rebellion in the north.
The soldiers of the newly formed National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR) read out a brief statement after heavy weapons fire rang out around the presidential palace in the capital Bamako throughout the night.
The United States later condemned the coup.
"The CNRDR ... has decided to assume its responsibilities by putting an end to the incompetent regime of Amadou Toumani Toure," said Amadou Konare, spokesman for the CNRDR.
Curfew
"We promise to hand power back to a democratically elected president as soon as the country is reunified and its integrity is no longer threatened," said Konare, flanked by about two dozen soldiers. A subsequent statement declared an immediate curfew "until further notice."
The statements made no reference to the whereabouts of Toure, who for the past decade has presided over one of the more stable governments in West Africa and was due in any case to step down after elections scheduled for late next month.
A soldier at the presidential palace who asked not to be named because he feared reprisal told The Associated Press the presidential guard had failed to defend the palace against the renegade soldiers. The unidentified soldier said while the troops had seized control of the seat of government, they could not find Toure, the country's democratically elected leader.
A statement from U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said: "We echo the statements of the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and other international partners denouncing these actions. We call for calm and the restoration of the civilian government under constitutional rule without delay, so that elections can proceed as scheduled.
"We stand with the legitimately elected government of President Amadou Toumani Touré. Mali is a leading democracy in West Africa and its institutions must be respected."
The gold- and cotton-producing nation of Mali has struggled to contain a northern rebellion launched late last year by local Tuareg nomads joined by heavily armed fellow Tuaregs returning from Libya after fighting for ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The rebellion, in which dozens have been killed and nearly 200,000 civilians have fled their homes, has added a new layer of insecurity to a region where al-Qaida allies have carried out a spate of kidnappings of Westerners and other crimes.
It has also exposed Bamako's lack of control over the northern half of a country twice the size of France.
The mutineers who complain they lack arms and resources to face the separatist insurgency.
Bing map
Mali army mutineers reportedly attack presidential palace in the capital, Bamako.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called in a statement for calm and for grievances to be settled democratically.
In a sign of spreading support for the mutiny, two military sources in the northern town of Gao confirmed the arrests of several senior officers in the town, a regional operations centre.
Bamako was briefly paralysed last month as hundreds of Malians put up street barricades and burned tyres in the streets to protest at the government's handling of the rebellion.
Toure, in power since 2002, has said he is planning after April elections. The former paratroop commander overthrew a dictatorship in a 1991 coup and relinquished power a year later before returning to office via the ballot box.
'The talks went badly'
A military source said a trigger for Wednesday's events was a visit by the defense minister to a barracks in the town of Kati about 13 miles north of Bamako.
"The minister went to speak to troops but the talks went badly and people were complaining about the handling of the crisis in the north," the source said.
A defense ministry official who was at the meeting said a soldier accused the defense minister of betraying them by not giving them means to fight the rebels. Soldiers then began throwing rocks at the minister before taking weapons from the armory and shooting in the air.
Tuareg fighters seeking to carve out a desert homeland in Mali's north have made advances in recent weeks, including the seizure this month of the key garrison town of Tessalit by the Algerian border.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Note to self: Scratch Mali off the list of potential vacation spots for 2012.
Looks like you'll probably be able to scratch it off all maps by the time they're done.
Heh, as if Mali was ever a good vacation spot.
Mali is actually one of the most interesting places in Africa with Timbuktu and the Dogon people/country being highlights.
In related news, CIA operatives are back from "operations" in an African country.
@TIDubai
That's fine, but if something happens to you don't come crying to the US government to get your ass out of trouble.
Interesting which rebellions are embraced and which are condemned? Jesus please come back today.
Looks like Midtown St Petersburg Florida, with camouflage on instead of hoodies and droopy pants.
Same story different country, just another day in Africa.
Yes, incompetent leaders only interested in enriching themselves.
Yeah, enriching themselves with the billions of aid dollars we send over there every year. The little people see almost nothing of that.
Interesting ... they don't have enough of the right equipment to fight rebels in the north but have enough weapons etc to oust the government.
They produce gold and cotton , by the picture they appear well dressed ( as in fairly new clean uniforms ) and very modern Toyota trucks that are not cheap.
Does anyone else think this sounds a bit fishy?
Well you can think of it both ways, its either its fishy or the government was so incompetent that they could not stop this insurgence. It looks like the president fled a long time ago.
What, were you expecting huts and cows?
They did say the President's defenders "failed" to stop them, not that they were defeated... maybe the government just surrendered. It's a lot easier to storm government buildings than rebel outposts.
Sad state of affairs.
The amont of Gold and Cotton produced is insufficient to properly finance the government and support the population. They also are landlocked, and lack organic petroleum resources. It is not as simple as it seems. THe shame is, this country was a model of democracy and stability in its region until this.
It seems like they need a fair and equal system in the country where everyone can make a decent living, this spring uprising seems to be mostly based on that, in all these countries, they have people who seem to have a hard time earning a living, while others live it up! it seems like most financial systems in the world are set up this way, the ones at the top have it made while the masses seem to do the hard work and for little pay so they can almost never climb out of poverty!!!
That's broadly true, but does not seem to be the cause in this case. Mali was doing relatively well and the coup was in response to a failure to fight off northern rebels, not inequality.
SF accountant; I see what you are saying, but the northern rebels must have needed money pretty bad to go into Libya to fight for income, when they returned they had weapons, it just seems like that they may have been upset with the south, and north differences be for they returned, and started this rebellion, most of these countries, including Egypt have a high unemployment rate, and it seems to be the younger ones who is unemployed the most! that was one of the most of reasons for most of the Arab spring rebellions! when people are making a good living they usually do not do this!
Back into darkness.
What's are tyres? Did someone forget to hit spell check before posting again? LOL
Chef80 - FYI, "tyres" is how they spell "tires" in England.
Can Detroit be far behind??
Not if the liberals continue to have their way there.
Hmmmm....armed soldiers taking over the existing Government in an African nation .......You don't say.
This headline begs the question, is there a “competent” government anywhere in Africa?
Your message begs the question, is there a bigot who doesn't jump at the opportunity to demonstrate said bigotry?
Is there a competent government anywhere?
In Africa, the "competent" governments are those that keep the military happy.
There are exceptions, of course. South Africa and Ghana stand out. But in most of the continent military force is still more important than democratic legitimacy.
That depends upon your definition of 'competent'. To some, the American govt is incompetent.
Don't cast rocks when you live in a glass house!
"Coup topples 'incompetent regime' " Yes, I wonder if they need another job? And in D.C. they could probably get union wages,
They claim they will return power to a democratically elected government, yet they stage this coup about a month before free elections? Sounds to me like someone in the military wanted to put himself in power before someone popular was elected. If a decent president were elected and gained the support of the people, the citizens would rise up against a military take over. Right now people seem to want their leader of ten years out. Convenient timing.
Where is AFRICOM in all of this?
Not their problem.
AFRICOM is a command only structure, there are no troops allotted to AFRICOM. Therefore AFRICOM isn't going to be doing anything other than monitor the situation.
On a lighter note when I first read the headline I thought it said 'Coup tops incompetent Mall leadership" I thought this was taking consumer rights to a whole new level.
Imcompetent African ruler from Mali
Incompetent African/American ruler with a daughter named Mali.
should happen to the regime in d.c.
You want a military coup to overthrow our government? Even if you disagree with the current leadership of the country, that is wrong on so many levels.
Are you serious, a military coup in Mali ? Wow, did I call that wrong. I was sure they were going to have a shot at the 2024 Olympic Games. Well, I guess we can push their application to the bottom of the pile, eh ? On a serious note, this could be a good thing...let's think this through...a military that is tired of ineffectual government that hasn't been able to control a rebellion ? Sounds like they have the country's best interest at heart. The telling point will be who steps forward to take control. On the upside is maybe Europeans (read France) will step up to take a greater role. For all the criticisms that have been leveled at France, they are very democratically oriented and have all the motivation to get out quickly. If the motivation is to get out quickly, the steps to intervene will be equally rapid. It also provides the French with a good excuse to get out of Afghanistan. So the French deploy the 2nd REP to Mali, take 18 months to secure the northern provinces and then back to France. Don't try to tell me that the French wouldn't rather be in Africa than Afghanistan ? Hell, Afghanistan would probably rather be in Mali than Afghanistan. There are so many upsides for the French, I'd be surprised if they don't get involved. The French re-deployment out of Afghanistan gives the Americans cover to withdraw. The only issue for the Americans will be the British. But, if the house of cards begins to come apart, the lines at Kabul International will be long and crowded. So...Mali becomes the reason for a French draw down followed by the US and UK getting out of Afghanistan to save poor Africa. Any bet takers out there ?
OK, so the defense minister went to the to the troops to talk. and the troops threw rocks and broke into the armoury and fired weapons into the air. and then the govt surrendered.
Well from 1890-1960, mali was a FRENCH COLONY. THEY LEARNED FROM THE BEST. The government leaders probably thought they were german.