Middle East & Africa | A coup that was coming

What next for Mali?

Mutinous soldiers have toppled the president. They may have more trouble dealing with protesters and jihadists

|JOHANNESBURG

MALIANS ARE no strangers to coups d’état. In 1991 the armed forces stepped in after sustained protests against Moussa Traoré, the dictator who had ruled the west African country since 1968. (Traoré himself had led a coup against his predecessor.) In March 2012 mutinous soldiers angry at the government’s handling of a rebellion in the north ousted the president, Amadou Toumani Touré.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “A coup that was coming”

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