The 21-22 March overnight putsch in Mali's capital Bamako forced President Amadou Toumani Touré to flee his official residence and seek refuge with loyalist troops. Several ministers and leading political figures were arrested. At least four citizens have died, and soldiers have looted shops and petrol stations.
The immediate human and material casualties are just the first consequence of this violent explosion of anger by soldiers from the country's main military base at Kati. The uprising has paralysed the political functioning of the Malian state and shattered Mali's largely justified image as a consensual and tolerant democracy.
...