Mali's military leader Colonel Assimi Goïta brought in Wagner towards the end of last year meeting condemnation from several Western powers including France Britain and the United States...

Last year the junta under Colonel Assimi Goïta reconfirmed its control of the political scene by organising a second coup (AC Vol 62 No 11 Don't call it a coup)...

European Union sanctions on those who impede the transition back to democracy following those imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) deepens confrontation with Bamako – where Colonel Assimi Goïta's regime has confirmed its refusal to hold elections next February...

Mali's military junta led by Colonel Assimi Goïta has shown increasing defiance to France and international and regional organisations both over relations with Russia and a transition to civilian rule since it took power in August last year (AC Vol 61 No 17 The junta haggles on transition)...

With the Kremlin-connected mercenary group Wagner already in advanced talks with Colonel Assimi Goïta's government in Mali Russia could not have picked a more prickly moment to stir things up further with France whose troops have been deployed against jihadists in the country since 2013 (AC Vol 62 No 19 The Wagner act)...

' Junta leader Assimi Goïta also promised when taking power to maintain all prior security agreements...

And in September this year President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Mali's President Colonel Assimi Goïta by phone proposing cooperation across a range of areas – including military expertise on fighting terrorism...

Meanwhile Ecowas threatens international sanctions on Mali's interim head of state Assimi Goïta and his colleagues if they postpone scheduled polls beyond the February date to which they have committed but which they now hint may be impractical (AC Vol 62 No 14 Paris makes up with the junta)...

Yet the US may have if inadvertently created a club of coup plotters through its annual Operation Flintlock joint exercises with West African armies: it was on one such exercise in Burkina Faso in 2019 that Colonel Assimi Goïta leader of the current Malian junta met Doumbouya...

Reports have suggested Doumbouya may have got to know Assimi Goïta the 2020 Mali putschist now suspected of hoping to prolong his transitional rule until 2023 while both were on a United States-organised Flintlock regional training exercise...

The regional and international powers have accepted coup-leader Assimi Goïta's self-installation as president...