So far the experience of being
in Mali while the country undergoes the transition to a military junta has been
uneventful. There have not been significant shortages of any of the basic
necessities, although I hear conflicting reports from Bamako about whether
there is truly a fuel shortage there. Up North, transport has not been
significantly interrupted and rumors I initially heard of banditry on the roads
have yet to be confirmed. The little unrest and violence there has been was in
Bamako and far North of where volunteers are. Certain precautionary measures
have been taken by Peace Corps which we have been asked to not discuss publicly
online. Suffice to say that it’s more or less the kind of precautions that you
would expect from the United States government.
The military junta has
announced that government services will start up again and the borders and
banks will begin functioning again Tuesday (tomorrow). We have all been anticipating
this moment, which could lead to drastic changes in the current situation for
better or for worse. The ease with which the soldiers took over and the
fragility of basic services in Mali are a sharp reminder of how layered and
profound the challenges of development are. When a country is weak economically
often the safeguards that we are used to in developed countries cease to exist.
For the time being Mali is incredibly fortunate that the current military
leaders seem have eschewed violence, although it is worth noting that Malian
culture on the whole shies away from violence.
What happens from here for
us volunteers? There are a number of possibilities, some of which involve us
staying in Mali and some of which don’t, depending on the evolution of the
political and security situation here. It’s hard to know until we’ve seen how
the next few days play out. However, Mali has a lot to work out before volunteers
like us can go back to business as usual.
The best-case scenario is that
President Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT) will somehow be reinstated as president
and things will get smoothed over. Most of us think but this is a remote
possibility. For one, mutineers aren’t normally the type to willingly return
power to the very person they overthrew. It’s also worth noting that the
location of ATT is still unknown and practically the last anyone has heard from
the office of the President was last Tuesday on Twitter when the official
account of the government denied that a coup was underway : “@Bambyam
Pourriez-vous vérifier votre source ? Il n'y a pas de coup d'état au Mali. Il y
a juste une mutinerie dans la garnison de Kati.” My own translation of this
official response to a question by another Twitter user is as follows:
“@Bambyam Would you please check your source? There is no coup d’état in Mali.
There is just a mutiny in the garrison at Kati.” Three minutes later came
another Tweet, “Pour preuve, j'emets du Palais de la Présidence. Des déserteurs
et d'autres militaires qui ne veulent pas aller au front se sont mutinés.” In
English, “As proof, I’m broadcasting from the Presidential Palace. Some
deserters and other soldiers who do not want to go to the front lines have mutinied.”
Shortly afterward the palace was stormed by soldiers. The very last tweet from
the account announced that the defense minister was neither injured nor killed
and continuing his day as normal. Since that message at 17:24 last Tuesday, the
account has been silent.
Tweets from Mali
It’s an odd experience to be reading
and sending out updates from Twitter about a military coup in the country I’m
living in. Not long before my departure for Mali I was scouring Twitter myself
for firsthand updates on crisis zones across Africa and the Middle East. Now
I’m occupying both roles – sending updates from the ground and reading updates
from other people in country (as well as using it to find international news
reports). To be clear, I don’t see Twitter having anywhere near the pivotal
role in Mali that it has during other recent periods of crisis such as the Arab
Spring. There are relatively few Twitter users here. Thankfully, so far there
has been virtually no violence resulting directly from the coup. It follows
that the information spreading online does not have the same critical nature
that it did in other recent cases. Also, all other forms of communication are
currently up and running in Mali, so Malians have not needed to rely on Twitter.
There is also still a substantial international media presence here. However,
given my current position with internet access Twitter has been a valuable tool
for me as a one-stop location to get the most up-to-date information from
international press, independent journalists and eyewitnesses. I have been
happy to find that there has been a tendency in discussions on Mali to treat
rumors as rumors and encourage fact-checking.
A lot of observers on Twitter responded
to the evolving situation with humor. Shortly after the now infamous Tweet
denying a coup attempt, another Twitter user, Andrew Stroehlein, posted “Is this a
first? denying a coup attempt via #twitter?” Later JusticeJFK was one of many
who brought up the questionable timing of the takeover when he wrote “#Mali
Ceci est l'un des coups d'état les + ridicules que l'Afrique ait connu. Que
promettront les putschistes? Une élection? C dans 1 mois!” (#Mali This is one
of the silliest coup d’états that Africa has ever known. What will the
mutineers promise? An election? It’s in a month!). One of the first actions of
the mutineers was to take over the national TV/Radio station, ORTM. The station
initially went dark and when it came on again for the first time Wednesday
evening the audience was met with a message saying to stay tuned for an “impending
military announcement,” as Malian music played in the background. Shortly after
midnight, user Ogobere wrote “Bon
ils se décident ou pas? Ils ont presque fini tout le répertoire de la musique
malienne. #Mali” (Well will they decide or won’t they? They’ve almost finished
the whole repertoire of Malian music. #Mali). User tbbBaseball, perhaps a more
casual observer, wrote with equal sarcasm,
“Finally I win a pool! I picked Mali in my coup d'etat pool at work
#marchmadness.” Lastly, @DoudouDoucanss saw a possible French connection with
the coup and “Ba alors Sarkozy y'a pas de pétrole au Mali tu t'en mêle pas ?
#JeDemande,” (Hey Sarkozy there’s no oil in Mali why don’t you stay out of
it?).
On a more serious note, as
expected there are increasing
reports of the Tuareg rebels in the North taking advantage of the uncertainty
and instability to make military advances. A worrying prospect is that the new
military leaders may increase their reliance on irregular militias. Such
militias have been successfully used in defeating past Tuareg rebellions, but have
also been repeatedly accused of human rights abuses. My host family and others
on my site speak of the fear inspired by these militias and their massacres and
brutal methods. As the already thinly-stretched military struggles to defend
the porous North and now their power base in Bamako as well (to which enormous
energy will be devoted) it seems plausible that Sanogo and the junta will
welcome any help they can get from these militias. This may lead to a dangerous
devolution of the situation up North, involving even more displacement of
civilians, further proliferation of arms and harsher fighting tactics used on
all sides.
Want to follow the updates on
your own? Just search for #Mali on Twitter, and follow my updates by searching @scochrane89. For reliable and professional coverage of what's going on here I also recommend following the writings of journalists Martin Vogl (@martinvogl) and Peter Dörrie (@peterdoerrie). For consistent firsthand accounts from Bamako @SoulBamako Tweets in English and French and @philinthe_ tweets in English.