Assimi Goïta, Alassane Ouattara, Alpha Condé, Mahamat Déby: all putschists!

Mali has been in the news worldwide with a wave of indignation from international bodies since the second putsch overthrew the President of the Transition, Bah N’Daw. Assimi Goïta, who was the architect of the coup, is being singled out, even though he did no worse than the President of Guinea, Alpha Condé, or the President of Côte d’Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara, and Mahamat Déby of Chad, all of whom were putschists.

The Malian colonel Assimi Goïta is in the dock. This career soldier is accused of having perpetrated a coup d’état by ousting the President of the Transition, Bah N’Daw, whose actions and path he judged as not conforming to the aspirations of the Malian people who, he said, « expect much more from their leaders ». A people who, in the words of Goïta, have « suffered enough ». This is why the colonel decided to perpetrate a coup d’état and take back power. He did so through a validation by the Malian Constitutional Court.

A putsch has just been validated in Mali, but decried by the international community and other sub-regional bodies, which see the twig in the eye of the Malian neighbour, but not the beam that pierces their eyes. Indeed, countries such as Guinea Conakry and Côte d’Ivoire are led by coup plotters, Alpha Condé and Alassane Ouattara respectively. These two presidents have broken the locks of the constitution in their countries to carve out a new one.

These two presidents who seized power in an anti-democratic manner and who still govern without being worried, having received the approval of their peers from ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) or the AU (African Union), even though their case is much more critical than that of Colonel Assimi Goïta, whose putsch did not lead to bloodshed, let alone the death of men. In Côte d’Ivoire as in Guinea, the coups d’état perpetrated by Condé and Ouattara cost the lives of several people.

A little further away in Central Africa, more precisely in Chad, a putsch has just been perpetrated with General Mahamat Idriss Déby, installed by the international community in power, in the name of the quest for stability in the country and the fight against terrorism, in violation of the constitutional rules governing this nation. A coup de force that also cost the lives of many people, including Chadians who dared to demonstrate against this coup. A coup that does not bother anyone. Not even Emmanuel Macron, President of France, a country that has always been a defender of world democracies.

All in all, what is the difference between what happened in Mali, Chad, Guinea or Côte d’Ivoire? There is no difference. The leaders of these countries are all putschists. Some, like Alassane Dramane Ouattara, Alpha Condé and Mahamat Idriss Déby, have shed the blood of their people, unlike Assimi Goïta, who has not shed a single drop of blood and is supported by the Malian people. We hope that he will not end up like Idriss Déby, whose death is still uncertain.