Amadou Toumani Touré
Encyclopedia
Amadou Toumani Touré is the president
Heads of state of Mali
-List of Heads of State of Mali:-Affiliations:-See also:*Heads of Government of Mali*Colonial Heads of Mali*Lists of incumbents*Elections in Mali ...

 of Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

. He overthrew a military ruler, Moussa Traoré
Moussa Traoré
General Moussa Traoré is a Malian soldier and politician. As a Lieutenant, he led the military ouster of President Modibo Keïta in 1968. Thereafter he served as Head of State from 1968-1979, and President of Mali from 1979 to 1991, when he was overthrown by popular protests and military coup...

 in 1991, then handed power to civilian authorities the next year. He won the presidential elections in 2002
Malian presidential election, 2002
Mali held a presidential election in 2002 to choose the President of Mali. The first round was held on 28 April 2002 and the second round was held on 12 May...

, with a broad coalition of support and was easily re-elected in 2007
Malian presidential election, 2007
A presidential election was held in Mali on 29 April 2007. President Amadou Toumani Touré ran for re-election against seven other candidates and won in the first round with about 71% of the vote, according to final results.-Pre-campaign:...

.

Biography

Amadou Toumani Touré was born on 4 November 1948, in Mopti, where he attended primary school. Between 1966 and 1969, he attended Badalabougou Standard Secondary School in Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...

 in order to become a teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

. Eventually, he joined the army and attended the Kati Inter-Military College. As a member of the Parachute Corps, he rose quickly through the ranks and after numerous training courses in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, he became the commander of the parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

 commandos in 1984.
In March 1991, after public demonstrations were violently quelled, he participated in a coup d'etat
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

 against Moussa Traoré and became leader of the Transitional Committee for the Welfare of the People, and performed the functions of the head of state during the transitional period towards democracy. He organized the national conference (between 29 July and 12 August 1991) which drew up the Constitution of Mali
Constitution of Mali
The 1992 Constitution of Mali was approved by a referendum on 12 January 1992 after being drawn up by a national conference in August 1991. The constitution provides for multi party democracy within a semi-presidential system.-Background:...

 and the legislative and presidential elections in 1992. When the results of the election became known he relinquished power to the newly elected president, Alpha Oumar Konaré
Alpha Oumar Konaré
Alpha Oumar Konaré was the President of Mali for two five-year terms , and was Chairperson of the African Union Commission from 2003 to 2008.-Scholarly career:...

. Because of this, he gained the nickname "The Soldier of Democracy."

In June 2001, he became the special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...

 to the Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...

 after the failed coup attempt there.

In September 2001 he asked for and was granted his expected retirement from the army. He decided to restart his political career by becoming a candidate in the upcoming presidential election. He was elected President of Mali in the 2002 presidential election
Malian presidential election, 2002
Mali held a presidential election in 2002 to choose the President of Mali. The first round was held on 28 April 2002 and the second round was held on 12 May...

. In the first round, he placed first with 28.71% of the vote, while in the second round he won 64.35% of the vote, defeating the ADEMA
Adema
-2003–2004: Unstable, Mark Chavez's and Mike Ransom's departure:Adema's second album, Unstable, was released by Arista in August 2003. It was produced by Howard Benson, whose credits also include producing albums with P.O.D., Hoobastank and Cold....

 candidate, former cabinet minister Soumaila Cissé
Soumaïla Cissé
Soumaïla Cissé is a Malian politician.Born in Timbuctu, Soumaïla Cissé studied at l'Institut des Sciences de l'Ingénieur de Montpellier in France to become a software engineer...

, who obtained 35.65% of the vote. Touré was sworn in on June 8, 2002.

His presidency has been rather atypical; he is not a member of any political party and his government has members from all of the political parties in the country. Following his 2002 election, he appointed Ahmed Mohamed ag Hamani
Ahmed Mohamed ag Hamani
Ahmed Mohamed ag Hamani, born , was the Prime Minister of Mali from 2002 until 2004.Hamani was born in Goundam. He became a technical advisor to the Minister of the Plan in 1975 before entering the government on January 7, 1978 as Minister for the Supervision of Companies and State Enterprises...

 to the post of Prime Minister. On April 28, 2004, he was replaced by Ousmane Issoufi Maiga
Ousmane Issoufi Maïga
Ousmane Issoufi Maïga was the Prime Minister of Mali from 2004 to 2007. Issoufi had previously held several ministerial posts in previous governments.Issoufi was born near Gao, in the north of Mali...

. On September 28, 2007 he was replaced by Modibo Sidibé
Modibo Sidibé
Modibo Sidibé is a Malian politician who was Prime Minister of Mali from September 2007 to April 2011.-Career:Sidibé, who was born in Bamako, was a police chief before serving as a technical adviser to the Ministry delegated to National Defense from 1986 to 1989; he was then the chief of staff of...

.

He founded a children's foundation named Fondation pour l'enfance - a name shared with a similar organization, created by former French first-lady Danielle Mitterrand
Danielle Mitterrand
Danielle Mitterrand was the wife of French President François Mitterrand, and president of the foundation France Libertés Fondation Danielle Mitterrand.-Biography:...

. President Toure now runs his foundation by the proxy of his wife, first lady Toure Lobbo Traore.

Touré announced on March 27, 2007 that he would run for a second term in the April 2007 presidential election
Malian presidential election, 2007
A presidential election was held in Mali on 29 April 2007. President Amadou Toumani Touré ran for re-election against seven other candidates and won in the first round with about 71% of the vote, according to final results.-Pre-campaign:...

. According to final results announced on May 12, Touré won the election with 71.20% of the votes. The main opposition candidate, National Assembly President Ibrahima Boubacar Keïta, won 19.15%; the Front for Democracy and the Republic
Front for Democracy and the Republic
The Front for Democracy and the Republic is an opposition coalition in Mali that fought the presidential election on 29 April 2007 and the parliamentary election of 1 July and 22 July 2007. The FDR is an umbrella organisation, bringing together 16 independent political parties and groups...

, a coalition including Keïta and three other candidates, rejected the official results. Foreign observers, however, endorsed the election as free and fair. Touré was sworn in for his second term as President on June 8, 2007, at a ceremony attended by seven other African presidents.

See also

  • List of national leaders
  • Tokyo International Conference on African Development
    Tokyo International Conference on African Development
    is a conference held every five years in Tokyo, Japan, with the objective "to promote high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners." Japan is a co-host of these conferences. Other co-organizers of TICAD are the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa...

     (TICAD-IV), 2008.

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