Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita
announced around midnight on Tuesday
that he is resigning from his post saying
that he does not wish blood to be shed
following a military mutiny that plunged
the country into a political crisis.
“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 soldiers were expected to deliver a
statement later, while countries in West
Africa, along with former colonial power
France, the European Union and the
African Union, denounced the actions of
the soldiers and warned against any
unconstitutional change of power.
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.
Earlier on Tuesday, opposition protesters
gathered at a square in Bamako in a show
of support for the soldiers, while foreign
embassies advised their citizens to stay
indoors.
