Two members of Mali’s women’s basketball team duked it out Monday following their latest loss in what has so far been a winless appearance in the women’s World Cup.
The brief, caught-on-camera scuffle took place in the postgame media area after the team was defeated 81-68 by Serbia, video posted online and social media shows.
One player even attempted to connect on a few haymakers before other teammates rushed in to break up the ugly situation, according to the footage that was captured by Serbian media during a player interview.
FIBA, the international basketball governing body, has opened an investigation into the incident between ballers Salimatou Kourouma and Kamite Elisabeth Dabou.
The scuffle occurred in the postgame media area after Mali’s loss.YouTube | Sport Klub
Both players are averaging less than 10 points per game as the woeful Mali team has lost each of their four games by an average of 30 points.
Earlier in the tourney, Mali lost by an astounding 60 points to Australia.
FIBA has opened an investigation into the fight.YouTube | Sport Klub
The African country originally didn’t even have the opportunity to compete on the world stage, but was a late entry to replace Nigeria, which had administrative issues.
Mali wraps up their tournament Tuesday against Canada.
If they win it would be the first World Cup victory for the country since 2010 when the team went 1-4.
KATI, Mali, July 22 (Reuters) – Islamist militants struck Mali’s main military base, just outside the capital Bamako, on Friday in a complex attack involving car bombs, but the armed forces said they had repelled the assault and had the situation under control.
Militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have repeatedly raided bases across Mali during a decade-long insurgency concentrated in the north and centre but never so close to Bamako in the south.
Heavy gunfire rang out for about an hour early on Friday at the Kati camp, about 15 km (10 miles) northwest of Bamako. A convoy carrying the leader of Mali’s junta, Colonel Assimi Goita, later sped away from his house in Kati in the direction of Bamako, a Reuters reporter said.
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The military said in a statement that the assault involved two car bombs and was carried out by the Katiba Macina, a branch of al Qaeda’s local affiliate that is most active in central Mali.
One soldier died in the attack and six people were wounded, while seven assailants were killed and eight arrested, it said.
“The military staff wishes to reassure the population that the situation is under control and that it can go about its activities,” the military said.
After the attack, soldiers shot and killed a man outside the camp when his vehicle did not heed their orders to stop, witnesses told Reuters. The other person in the vehicle fled, they said.
The military also blamed Katiba Macina for several attacks on Thursday against bases in central Mali, which it said had killed one soldier and wounded 15.
Kati was the site of mutinies in 2012 and 2020 that led to successful coups, but camp residents told Reuters that the soldiers did not appear to be fighting among themselves this time.
Mali’s ruling junta came to power in an August 2020 coup. It staged a second coup in 2021 to force out a civilian interim president who was at odds with Goita.
Goita’s transitional government has sparred repeatedly with neighbouring countries and international powers over election delays, alleged army abuses and cooperation with Russian mercenaries in the fight against the Islamist insurgency.
Despite coming to power pledging to stamp out the insurrection, the junta has been unable to prevent the insurgents from extending their operations further south.
Last week, unidentified armed men killed six people at a checkpoint just 70 km east of Bamako. read more
The only major attack to hit Bamako occurred in 2015, when al Qaeda-linked militants killed 20 people at a luxury hotel.
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Reporting by Fadimata Kontao; Additional reporting and writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Edmund Blair, John Stonestreet and Nick Macfie
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Former president oversaw period of deep insecurity
Lost popular support and eventually ousted in coup
BAMAKO, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Former Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was ousted by the military in 2020 after a turbulent seven-year rule, has died, officials said on Sunday. He was 76.
Known by his initials IBK, Keita ran the West African country from September 2013 until August 2020, during which Islamist insurgents overran large areas and ethnic violence flared.
Disputed legislative elections, rumours of corruption and low economic growth also fuelled public anger and drew tens of thousands onto the streets of the capital Bamako in 2020 to demand his resignation.
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He was eventually forced out by a military coup, whose leaders remain in charge despite strong international objections.
The interim government issued a statement on Sunday that read: “The government of Mali and the Malian people salute the memory of the illustrious deceased.”
Leaders from the region including Senegalese President Macky Sall and Burkina Faso’s president, Roch Kabore, sent condolences.
The cause of death was not immediately clear. A former adviser said Keita, who frequently travelled abroad for medical attention, had died at home in Bamako.
He was detained and put under house arrest during the coup, but those restrictions were lifted amid pressure from the West African political bloc ECOWAS.
Known for his white flowing robes and a tendency to slur his words, Keita came to power in a resounding election victory in 2013. He vowed to take on the corruption that had eroded support for his predecessor Amadou Toumani Toure, also toppled in a coup.
INSECURITY AND CORRUPTION
Keita had a reputation for firmness forged when he was prime minister in the 1990s, when he took a hard line with striking trade unions.
As president, he enjoyed strong international support, especially from former colonial ruler France, which poured in money and troops to counter al Qaeda-linked jihadists who in 2012 hijacked an ethnic Tuareg rebellion and swept across the desert north.
But continued insecurity ultimately marred his presidency.
French forces pushed back the insurgents in 2013. But they recovered, and have since killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians, driven out local leaders and in some areas set up their own systems of government.
The jihadist attacks also stoked ethnic violence between rival herding and farming communities, which claimed hundreds more lives and underscored the government’s lack of control. Abuses by the army bred more resentment, rights groups say.
Keita was also dogged by allegations of corruption.
In 2014, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund froze nearly $70 million in financing after the IMF expressed concern over the purchase of a $40 million presidential jet and the transparency of Mali’s defence spending.
When word got out in 2020 that Keita had been toppled, thousands celebrated on the streets.
With promises to end nepotism and corruption, the military struck a chord with millions of impoverished Malians who wanted a break from the past.
On Friday, 18 months on, thousands demonstrated in Bamako against strict sanctions imposed by ECOWAS on the transitional government for trying to extend its hold on power. read more
“IBK was a man who loved his country,” said a woman who came to Keita’s house on Sunday to pay her respects. “A good man who never betrayed Mali and who did everything so it did not fall.”
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Reporting By Tiemoko Diallo;
Additional reporting by Paul Lorgerie; Writing by Edward McAllister;
Editing by Angus MacSwan and Andrew Cawthorne
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
