A good friend of mine was raised in Mali as his dad was a Missionary to that country.
In the early 90’s, a military officer in Mali led a rebellion and arrested the dictator. He ordered fair elections, in which he refused to run and used the military to enforce the election results. His name was Toure and he ran in the early 2000’s and won the Presidency.
For most of the 90s and early 2000s, Mali was one of the most stable countries in Saharan Africa due to the military supporting free and open elections. When Toure was overthrown a few years ago in a coup d’état, the country entered into it’s current period of conflict.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadou_Toumani_Tour%C3%A9
Sort of like Moishe Tshombe of the Belgian Congo in the early 1960s. Sad that these type of leaders are very much the exception and not the rule.
You too? My two friends had parents that were missionaries there too.