KATI, Mali (Reuters) – Heavy gunfire was heard early on Friday morning at the main military base outside Mali’s capital Bamako before easing after about an hour, a Reuters reporter said.
After the gunfire – which began around 5 a.m. (0500 GMT) – died down, helicopters could be heard circling above the base in the town of Kati, where mutinies in 2012 and 2020 led to successful coups.
The military junta that rules Mali came to power in the August 2020 coup. It staged a second coup in 2021 to force out a civilian interim president who was at odds with the leader of first putsch, Colonel Assimi Goita.
Goita then became interim president. He plans to continue to lead a transitional government until elections are held in 2024.
(Reporting by Fadimata Kontao; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Edmund Blair and John Stonestreet)
