Info about the Islamist that is the driving force behind the destruction of Mali https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Dicko
but to be honest the deposed president https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Boubacar_Ke%C3%AFta was not good for Mali either.
Dicko is the Malian version of Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, who led the revolt against the Shah of Iran in 1979. Malian opposition to Keita’s government calls Dicko ‘the religious guide’. And like Ayatollah, he is a cleric and also a politician.
The 66 year-old Dicko is a Saudi-trained Muslim cleric and hugely popular. He backed Keita until they fell out in late 2017 over, among other things, the president’s choice of Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga as prime minister. As a religious leader, he wants the government to negotiate with jihadist groups.
https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2020/08/22/imam-mahmoud-dicko-the-powerful-mullah-that-caused-malis-coup/
Russia is planning to step up its military cooperation with African countries as part of its new Africa strategy, including building bases in six countries, Germany daily Bild reported Tuesday, citing a secret German Foreign Ministry report. The classified document on what it calls “Russia’s new Africa ambitions” says Russian President Vladimir Putin had made “Africa a top priority.”
An important aspect of Russia’s advance in Africa is military cooperation with some of the continent’s dictatorial regimes, it said. “Since 2015, Russia has concluded military cooperation agreements with 21 countries in Africa,” according to the leaked document.
Previously, there were only four military cooperation treaties across the entire continent, it added. Furthermore, it said, the Kremlin was “contractually assured” it would “be allowed to build military bases in six countries,” namely the Central African Republic, Egypt, Eritrea, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Sudan.
Moreover, Russia’s army is partially secretly and partially officially training soldiers from those countries, according to the report. For example, 180 Russian army instructors are based in the Central African Republic or elsewhere in Africa, said the report. “Around 20 Malian soldiers are trained in Russia every year,” it added.
With a market share of 37.6%, Russia is the top weapons supplier to Africa, followed by the US with 16%, France with 14%, and China with 9%.
Numerous media outlets, including the BBC, immediately reported that the coup was led by Malick Diaw and Sadio Camara, two army colonels who hold top positions at the Kati military base and who are reportedly very close friends. But there's something else both men have in common— they were trained by the military in Russia. Two Malian military officials told The Daily Beast that both Diaw and Camara were in Russia before they returned to Mali to stage Tuesday's coup, confirming a local media report. The two officers are said to have departed Bamako for Moscow early in the year to attend military training sponsored by the Russian armed forces, they returned a little over a week before the coup was executed.
Sources in the Malian military told The Daily Beast that a number of senior officers suspect Diaw and Camara planned the coup from Russia and that both men had been in contact with others involved in the plot from their training base abroad. Rumors that some officers were contemplating a coup had begun to spread quietly in the military at the start of August, even before the two colonels returned home. “A coup of this nature is not something you plan in a matter of days,” a lieutenant in the Malian army, who previously served in Kati, told The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to speak.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-trained-the-mali-coup-leaders
The Russian strategy: When there is a domestic problem, create a lot of problems abroad.