Mali coup leader, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo
Posted on 02/27/2013 6:09:07 PM PST by bruinbirdman
With Paris insisting that the 4,000 French troops involved in the counter-terrorist operations in northern Mali will leave Mali sometime in March, it is worth taking a look at the Malian military that will be called on to secure northern Mali despite the continued presence of armed Islamists in the region. Mali’s interim political administration is still in turmoil, as is the army, which has been at war with itself ever since the March 22, 2012 military coup led by American-trained Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo. The two main factions in the army, broadly described as the pro-junta “Green Berets” and the anti-coup “Red Berets,” have each in their own way hampered the reestablishment of security and national unity in Mali.
Mali coup leader, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo
During the March coup, the “Red Berets” of the 33rd Paratroop Regiment, who doubled as the presidential guard, rescued President Ahmadou Toumani Touré and successfully concealed him from the putschists, eventually smuggling him out of the country to safety in Dakar, Senegal. President Touré was himself the former commander of the Red Berets and used the access this gave him to mount his own coup against President Moussa Traoré in 1991. President Touré, who was scheduled to give up his post after the national elections scheduled for May, 2012, resigned in exile on April 8, 2012, allowing the formation of a new interim government in Bamako.
The Counter-Coup
Sanogo’s junta took the name of the Comité National pour le Redressement de la Démocratie et la Restauration de l'État (CNDRE) and appeared to have a firm grip on Mali’s power structures when the Red Berets under their commander Colonel Abidine Guindo mounted a counter-coup attempt on the night of April 30 – May 1, 2012 (Le Republicain [Bamako
(Excerpt) Read more at jamestown.org ...
... what about raspeberry berets?
The kind you find in a second-hand store...
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