Mali

On 23 March 2012 Dioncounda Traoré was quick to condemn the military coup, @mentioning international media outlets in his tweets to draw their attention to the situation in Bamako. The @Dioncounda2012 campaign account was set up to support Dioncounda Traoré’s bid to become president of Mali in the 2012 elections tweeting from the campaign trail and multiple fundraisers. On April 12, after the military coup Traoré became interim president of Mali. His last tweet announced the formation of the new government which counts 24 ministers.

After Diancounda Traoré became interim president of Mali, the @PresidenceMali account tweeted: “the account is alive, the new team will resume tweets in the next days.” In May and June 2012 the Twitter stream was once again dominated by violent attacks against the president who was transferred to France for a medical check-up after receiving head injuries during an attack on his residence. “I forgive my attackers and I also ask Malians to forgive their neighbors, brothers...” he was quoted in one tweet. When not relating coup attempts the account tweets official news including the names of the 24 ministers of the new government in 24 separate tweets and a letter of congratulations to new French President François Hollande, in 9 tweets. The presidential administration has been trying hard to connect with other world leaders unilaterally following 26 of them.