President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse
The soldiers behind the coup – calling themselves the National Committee for the Salvation of the People – appeared on state television in military fatigues, pledging to stabilise the country.
“We are not holding on to power but we are holding on to the stability of the country,” said Ismail Wague, Mali Air Force’s deputy chief of staff.
“With you, standing as one, we can restore this country to its former greatness,” said Wague, announcing borders were closed and a curfew was going into effect from 9pm to 5am.
“This will allow us to organise within an agreed reasonable timeframe, general elections to equip Mali with strong institutions, which are able to better manage our everyday lives and restore confidence between the government and the governed.”
Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resigned around midnight on Tuesday and dissolved parliament hours after mutinying soldiers detained him at gunpoint, plunging a country already facing an insurgency and mass protests deeper into crisis.
According to Aljazeera, Keita who\ looked tired and wearing a surgical mask, resigned in a brief address broadcast on state television after troops seized him along with Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other top officials.
“Today, certain parts of the military have decided that intervention was necessary. Do I really have a choice? Because I do not wish blood to be shed,” Keita said in a brief statement broadcast on national television.
Keita said that he has decided “to give up my duty from now on.”
It is unclear if the military is now officially in charge of the country.
Earlier, Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse were detained by soldiers in a dramatic escalation of a months-long crisis in the country.
The development came hours after soldiers took up arms and staged a mutiny at a key base in Kati, a town close to Bamako.
The events came amid a weeks-long political crisis that has seen opposition protesters taking to the streets to demand the departure of Keita, accusing him of allowing the country’s economy to collapse and mishandling a worsening security situation.
Mali’s years-long conflict, in which ideologically-motivated armed groups have stoked ethnic tensions while jockeying for power, has spilled into the neighbouring countries of Niger and Burkina Faso, destabilising the wider Sahel region and creating a massive humanitarian crisis.
President, PM arrested, mutiny leader tells AFP
The AFP news agency, citing a source identified as a leader of the mutiny, said the soldiers have detained Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse.
“We can tell you that the president and the prime minister are under our control,” the leader, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
Govt official: Mutinying soldiers holding president, PM
Keita and Cisse are both being held by rebel soldiers, a senior government official confirmed to the AFP news agency.
“The prime minister and the president were driven by rebel soldiers to Kati in armoured vehicles,” said Boubou Doucoure, who works as Cisse’s director of communications.
He added that both men were now at Kati. A mutiny in 2012 at the same base led to a military coup that toppled then-President Amadou Toumani Toure and contributed to the fall of northern Mali to fighters.
Protest movement says detention of president ‘not a military coup’
Malians Jubilate on the Streets of Bamako the state capital
The coalition in Mali behind mass protests calling for Keita to resign said his detention by mutinying soldiers was “not a military coup but a popular insurrection”.
“IBK did not want to listen to his people. We even proposed an alternative but he responded with killings,” Nouhoum Togo, spokesman for the M5-RFP coalition, told Reuters news agency, referring to Keita by his initials.
African Union Condemns Arrest of President And Prime Minisiter
The chairperson of the African Union Commission has condemned the arrests of Keita, Cisse and other officials.
Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat also condemned any attempt at “anti-constitutional” change and called on the mutinying soldier’s to respect the state’s institutions.
“I strongly condemn the forced detention of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, the Prime Minister and other members of the Malian government and call for their immediate liberation,” he wrote on Twitter.
ECOWAS bloc condemns Mali coup attempt
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has condemned the coup attempt in Mali and has moved to suspend the country from its decision-making body, according to Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, who is reporting from Abuja in Nigeria.
In an announcement, the regional alliance also said that neighbouring countries of the West African state are closing its borders and will impose sanctions as the crisis
EU condemns ‘coup attempt’ in Mali
The European Union “strongly condemns the coup attempt under way in Mali and rejects any unconstitutional changes,” the block’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter.
“This can in no way be a response to the deep socio-political crisis that has hit Mali for several months.”
UN Security Council to hold Mali meeting
The UN Security Council will hold on Wednesday afternoon an emergency meeting to discuss the current situation in Mali.
The session was requested by France and Niger and will take place behind closed doors, a senior UN diplomat told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity. Aljazeera Compilation
