2020 Malian coup d'état

Government of Mali

National Committee for the Salvation of the People

• Malian Armed Forces

Supported by:

On 18 August 2020, elements of the Malian Armed Forces began a mutiny, and subsequently undertook a coup d'état. Soldiers on pick-up trucks stormed the Soundiata military base in the town of Kati, where gunfire was exchanged before weapons were distributed from the armory and senior officers arrested. Tanks and armoured vehicles were seen on the town's streets, as well as military trucks heading for the capital, Bamako. The soldiers detained several government officials including President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, who resigned and dissolved the government. This was the country's second coup in less than 10 years, following the 2012 coup d'état. On a subregional level, the coup also marked an end to a period of nearly six years, since the 2014 Burkina Faso uprising and the ousting of Burkina Faso's president Blaise Compaoré, during which there was not a single undemocratic change of government in West Africa. For this subregion, where many countries have a history of civil war and violent conflict, 2014 to 2020 was a period of remarkable stability, during which ECOWAS found a peaceful resolution to the 2016–2017 Gambian constitutional crisis.