World Notes

The elusive promise of African democracy gained new strength in Mali last week as President Moussa Traore was overthrown by his disenchanted army, after 22 years of military dictatorship. The coup was triggered by three days of pro- democracy rioting in the capital of Bamako, during which at least 150 civilians were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in clashes with Mali's security forces.

Promising to replace Traore's "bloodthirsty and corrupt regime" with multiparty democracy, the coup leaders quickly formed a 17-man National Reconciliation Council headed by Lieut. Colonel Amadou Toumani Toure, 43, commander of the parachute forces. The council has announced plans to form a 25-member interim administration, which will hold multiparty elections by 1992. But democracy still faces a stiff challenge in this drought-prone nation of 8 million, one of the world's poorest countries. While the coup brought the chance of greater freedom, it also continued the pattern of violent overthrows plaguing the continent.