Amadou Toumani Touré

Who is Amadou Toumani Touré?

Amadou Toumani Touré is a Malian politician who was President of Mali from 2002 to 2012.

Touré was head of President Moussa Traoré's personal guard when a popular revolution overthrew the regime in March 1991 and Colonel Touré arrested the President and led the revolution. He presided over a year-long military-civilian transition process that produced a new Constitution and multiparty elections; Touré handed power to Mali's first democratically elected president, Alpha Oumar Konaré, on 6 June 1992. Konaré promoted Touré to the rank of General.

Ten years later, after retiring from the army, he entered politics as a civilian and won the 2002 presidential election with a broad coalition of support. He was easily re-elected in 2007 to a second and final term. On 22 March 2012, shortly before his scheduled departure from office, disgruntled soldiers initiated a coup d'état that forced him into hiding. As part of the agreement to restore constitutional order to Mali, Touré resigned from the presidency on 8 April, and eleven days later he went into exile.