Mali's junta leader appoints new army chief of staff following attacks

Less that two weeks after a coordinated wave of attacks struck Mali, the country’s junta leader has appointed a new chief of the general staff to the armed forces.

Elisée Jean Dao took office on Wednesday after being promoted from brigadier general in the National Guard to the rank of major general.

Dao takes over from Oumar Diarra who has been named minister delegate to the minister of defence, a role now held by Mali’s transitional president and junta leader, General Assimi Goita.

Former Defence Minister Sadio Camara was killed by a car bomb during last month’s attacks.

The reshuffle comes after the army said it has “solid evidence” that certain military personnel helped with the "planning, coordination and execution" of the attacks.

According to media reports, several members of the military and opposition have been detained or abducted in the wake of the April offensive.

Opposition figures Mountaga Tall, Youssouf Daba Diawara and Moussa Djire are among those "abducted," security sources and their allies told AFP.

Tall, a lawyer, was taken on 2 May in Bamako by hooded men, his family said. He is accused of plotting with opposition figures in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to overthrow the military government, a security source said.

An intelligence services source confirmed the information. Since his arrest, Tall has been questioned at least once for "attempted destabilisation," sources close to the matter said.

Meanwhile, security sources said that Diawara and Djire were suspected of links with, respectively, the influential imam Mahmoud Dicko and Oumar Mariko, two opposition figures in exile.

At least two other civilians who are close to Mariko were also arrested following the attacks, a judicial source told AFP, without giving further details.

"Everything suggests that these events are being used as an opportunity to carry out a purge within the political opposition and the army," a political official told AFP, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

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