Mali Leadership Transition Begins

The chaos in Mali continues, but it appears there might be an end in sight for the junta that took over the country following a military coup late last month. Coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo told the Associated Press late Friday that the process has started to make the head of the country’s National Assembly the Mali’s new leader.

That move is important because the West African regional bloc (ECOWAS) has imposed harsh sanctions on Mali following the coup that struck the country long seen as an example of democracy in the region. According to Al Jazeera, Sanogo and ECOWAS reached an agreement where both he and the president would stand aside.

The coup had been perpetrated at least in part over widespread anger that President Amadou Toumani Toure wasn’t doing enough to combat the Tuareg rebel fighters in the north of the country. Yet the chaos created by the coup allowed the Tuareg rebels, along with Islamist fighters, to achieve even more gains, and on Friday the rebels declared an independent state.  Mali’s neighbors and the European Union immediately rejected its recognition, notes the BBC.