Mali: Former President ATT Refugee in Senegal Arrested Leaders Released

Toure, 63, and his family left Bamako on board the presidential plane Senegalese, with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Senegal Alioune Badara Cisse.

All arrived in Dakar Thursday, April 19 around 23:30 local time (GMT), Toure "was cool, he was with his family," high "of about fifteen people," it was installed in a residence Dakar reserved for distinguished guests of Senegal, told AFP Abel Abu Thiam, spokesman for the Senegalese president Macky Sall.

It was not immediately known whether Amadou Toumani Toure, known as ATT, would remain in Senegal or temporarily reside before going to another destination.

His departure from Bamako has almost coincided with the release of civilian and military officials -22 in total-who were arrested earlier this week, and says that the police always come under investigation and likely prosecution.

Most of these officials have been or are considered relatives. Among them include former Prime Minister Modibo Sidibe, the former Minister Soumaila Cisse, lawyer, politician and MP Kassoum Tapo or responsible for the business and political leader Tieman Coulibaly.

According to several sources, ATT was confronted at the airport in Bamako to soldiers dissatisfied with him, who wanted to oppose his departure from Mali.

ATT authorized from

A military source, the family has left Mali Toure "with the consent of Captain Amadou Sanogo Haya", the coup leader who, unofficially, were initially opposed to the foreign Toure. .

Senegalese President Macky Sall, visiting Paris, had said, Wednesday, April 18, that former President Toure was then "in the territory of residence of the Embassy of Senegal in Bamako."

Brought to power by a coup in March 1991, ATT, a soldier, had led a transition before returning power to civilians.He was then elected president in 2002, reelected in 2007 and was to step down in June after his two terms maximum legal.

He was overthrown on March 22, five weeks of the presidential election, by soldiers who accused him of negligence in managing the current crisis since mid-January in northern Mali.

This vast natural area mostly desert, which is half of the country, fell in late March-early April under the control of Tuareg rebels supported by various armed movements, including Islamists.

Since his fall, ATT had remained silent until March 28, when assured of a residence that was kept secret in Bamako and not a prisoner of the coup. But he has remade his first public appearance as April 8, to tender his resignation letter to the mediators of the Economic Community of African States (ECOWAS).

Two days earlier, on April 6, an agreement on the return to constitutional order in Mali had been torn from the junta through mediation, which paved the way for the establishment of transitional institutions.

The former president of the National Assembly, Dioncounda Traore, 70, was sworn in as Leader of the Acting State on April 12. He has appointed Tuesday the world-renowned astrophysicist Cheick Modibo Diarra, 60, as prime minister with a mandate to form a national unity government, and to be addressed first to the crisis in the North.