The announcement of a thwarted putsch comes 24 hours after Mali withdrew from the G5 Sahel, in protest against its failure to assume the rotating presidency of this organization.
Early Monday evening, May 16, the Malian government claimed to have foiled an attempted coup by “a small group of anti-progressive officers and non-commissioned officers.”
According to the statement from the Minister of Territorial Administration and Devolution, the event took place during the night of May 11 to 12, 2022. “These soldiers were supported by a Western State,” the document said, although it did not specify which State it was.
Bamako, which “condemns in the strongest terms” what it considers to be an “outrageous attack on state security,” assures that all necessary means and appropriate measures have been deployed in the investigation and search for accomplices. To this end, controls at the exits of Bamako and at the border posts of Mali have been reinforced.
“In addition, those arrested will be placed at the disposal of the judiciary,” concluded the 31st communiqué of the transitional government, which itself was stemmed from a coup d’Etat in May 2021, after a first putsch nine months earlier in August 2020.
AC/Los/fss/APA