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Former President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure has died at the age of 72, a family member said on Tuesday.

“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 the news agency, AFP.

Toure came to power in 1991, when he led a coup against dictator Moussa Traore who had ruled the country for 22 years. Traore died in September.

A doctor in the Malian capital of Bamako told AFP  that Toure had recently undergone heart surgery in the city’s Luxembourg Hospital which he had helped to build.

“Although everything seemed to be going well, he transferred to Turkey for medical reasons,” the doctor said.

Toure, often simply called ATT after his initials, won presidential elections in 2002 and in 2007. However, mutinous soldiers accused him of failing to support their fight against Tuareg rebels and jihadist insurgents and went on to overthrow him.

Source: AFP