Pages

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Coup d'Etat: Democracy chucked aside

It has been a week and a half now since we had a coup d’etat here. Mali had been a shining example of democracy and stability in Africa for the past 20 years, and now this. We had been having problems for 2 months already in the north with Toureg rebels attacking towns and many people fleeing the violence to other parts of Mali or to neighboring countries. The rebels want a piece of land for themselves up there.
A lot of people, not least of all members of the military, were having issues with the way the president was dealing with (or not dealing with) these problems. Many of the Toureg rebels were in Libya fighting for Gadhaffi, and when they returned they brought some serious
weaponry with them. Why did the president allow them to bring arms across the border into the country like that? And then he sent the military up to fight off the rebels but with a lack of sufficient weapons and supplies. So I can understand why people were upset with the president’s actions and/or inactions. But there were presidental elections coming up so soon, only 5 weeks after when the coup happened. And the current president couldn’t have been reelected. So we were going to have some new president in place soon to hopefully fix things up.
But certain military guys decided that they should just chuck democracy aside and invade the presidental palace, capture the president, and take over the country. Super. In Bamako it was a bit scary for a few days, and I still wouldn’t want to be there right now.
But where we live things seem pretty normal.
Except for yesterday when I went to try to get some money from the bank. It was announced that there were 72 hours for the people who took over to give up, or else there will be sanctions. So that is going to be starting now. All of our neighboring countries will close their borders with Mali. So no shipments coming in. No gas (for my stove or motorcycle). No banking, no way to get
money. The power will probably soon be cut and not come back on. (for now it often cuts for up to 12 hours at a time, but then comes back) So I went to try to get money yesterday because it seemed like a good idea to have some of that on hand. There are 4 banks now with ATM’s in town. One of them was closed already. The others were packed very full in their lobbies, and there were longs line for the ATM’s. I’ve never seen a line for an ATM here before. I did manage to get some money.
A lot of other foreign missionaries decided to leave the country. Some of my friends left this morning, the last day to leave across land borders before the sanctions start. But I am still here. And I am safe. Don’t worry.
I need to go stock up on non-perishable food items, especially things that come across borders. My fridge will probably not have power soon, so we’ll try to eat everything in the fridge and freezer as best we can. Basically it could turn into “camping at home” pretty quickly.
We are hoping and praying that things will be resolved soon. As long as we are not in physical danger I am ok about staying here. I can deal with no electricity. Even if the water gets cut, we can draw water from a well. And if we have to eat only local food like millet and maize and cook it over wood or charcoal we’ll manage with that too. It’s hard to just not know what is going to happen and how long all of this will go on for. If things get dangerous as far as our personal safety, I will get out (either by the airport which is so far still open, or by a non-official backroads border crossing).
Thank you for praying with us for the situation in Mali.


2 comments:

  1. Hi Erin,
    Thanks so much for the update--I've been praying ever since I heard about it, but there's not a lot of news. Keep us posted!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Erin,

    We are thinking a lot about you and all our friends in Koutiala and Bamako. It's so strange to see these things happen in Mali! We pray that there will soon be a good end to all this. Please send our greetings to the rest of the team.

    Blessings, Gerard & Gea

    ReplyDelete