Gbenro Adesina
Mali’s President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse, have been arrested by mutinying soldiers in the capital during an apparent coup attempt.
The development on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, came hours after soldiers took up arms and staged a mutiny at a key base in Kati, a town close to Bamako.
It followed 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 regional and international powers urged the troops to return to the barracks and foreign embassies advised their citizens to stay indoors.
African Union Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat has issued a statement: ”strongly condemning the forced detention of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, the Prime Minister and other members of the Malian govt, and call for their immediate release.”
The President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and the Prime minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga have been arrested after months of public protest
They have been arrested by mutineering soldiers #Mali. pic.twitter.com/xdV7j5fhpA
— Africa Research Desk (@MightiJamie) August 18, 2020
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