As the rebels were gaining ground in the north in early 2012, Malian soldiers staged a mutiny at the Kati military camp located about 10km (six miles) from the presidential palace in Bamakoreenex .

It culminated in a coup, led by a mid-ranking army officer Capt Amadou Sanogo, one of the few officers who did not flee the Kati camp when the rank-and-file soldiers began rioting and then headed for the seat of governmentreenex .

Having overthrown President Amadou Toumane Toure, he promised that the Malian army would defeat the rebels. But the ill-equipped and divided army was no match for the firepower of the rebels, who tightened their grip over the north in the immediate aftermath of the coup.

Capt Sanogo, who is in his late 30s, is from Segou, Mali's second largest town some 240km (150 miles) north of Bamako, where his father worked as a nurse at Segou's medical centre.

Former Mali-based journalist Martin Vogl describes the army officer as a forceful, confident and charismatic man, friendly but with a slightly abrupt mannerreenex .