Former President of Mali Amadou Toumani Toure, who governed the Sahel nation for ten years before being ousted in a coup, has died in Turkey, according to a family member and his doctor.
“Amadou Toumani Toure died during the night of Monday to Tuesday in Turkey,” where he had been taken for health reasons, his nephew Oumar Toure told AFP on Tuesday.
A hospital doctor in Bamako said the former president has recently undergone heart surgery.
Although “everything seemed to be going well”, the doctor said Toure was later transferred to Turkey for medical reasons.
Toure, a former military man, first took charge of Mali for a year in 1991, helping to overthrow the previous regime and install democracy in the country.
Toure won Presidential elections in 2002 and 2007 but was later overthrown in 2012 by mutinous soldiers who accused him of failing to support their fight against jihadist insurgents and Tuareg rebels.
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Mali has constantly suffered from chronic instability and repeated coups, the latest coming earlier this year.
