African Union to visit Mali after military seizes power

The African Union (AU) has suspended Mali’s membership following a coup d’etat in the West African state.

AU chairman Jean Ping said a mission would be sent to assess the situation after soldiers mutinied and drove the democratically elected president from power, a month before he was due to stand down after scheduled elections.

The mission will visit capital Bamako, Mr Ping said, following an emergency AU meeting. He described the upheaval as a serious setback for Mali and democracy across the continent.

Soldiers in Bamako declared they had seized power on Thursday.

Yesterday, Tuareg rebels in the north of the country advanced on three strategically important towns, including the ancient city of Timbuktu. Leaders of the two-month-old rebellion have already said they would take advantage of the chaos following the toppling of president Amadou Toumani Toure.

The second-in-command of the Tuareg rebels said his forces were advancing on the city of Kidal as dozens of government soldiers deserted and others abandoned their positions in the wake of the coup.

Colonel Dilal ag Alsherif said command of the army was in disarray. The rebels want an independent state for the Tuareg people, semi-nomads found across sub-Saharan Africa.

Mali was one of the few functioning democracies in north-west Africa. Soldiers surrounded the presidential palace on Wednesday as well as the state TV station and proclaimed they were in control.

In their first public statement on Thursday, they said they had ousted president Toure because of his incompetent handling of the Tuareg insurgency. Rank-and-file soldiers are overwhelmingly from the south, and from ethnic groups that do not share the same language or culture as the lighter-skinned Tuaregs. They have died in large numbers trying to keep towns in the north out of Tuareg control since January. Ironically, their coup has helped the Tuareg cause.

The whereabouts of Mr Toure were unknown yesterday but Mr Ping said he understood the president was being guarded by loyal soldiers.

“The president is in Mali for sure – not so far from Bamako,” he said. “He is safe. We have been assured of that by those who protect him.”