Mutinying soldiers force Mali President's resignation
Bamako: Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has resigned and dissolved parliament hours after mutinying soldiers detained him at gunpoint, plunging a country already facing a jihadist insurgency and mass protests deeper into crisis.
Looking tired and wearing a surgical mask, Keita resigned in a brief address broadcast on state television hours after troops seized him along with Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other top officials.
Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, pictured last year, has resigned after being detained by soldiers.Credit:AP
"If today, certain elements of our armed forces want this to end through their intervention, do I really have a choice?" he said from a military base in Kati outside the capital Bamako where he had been detained earlier in the day.
Cisse had earlier appealed for dialogue and urged mutineers to stand down.
It was not immediately clear who was leading the revolt, who would govern in Keita's absence or what the mutineers wanted. A military spokesman said he had no information.
Images posted earlier on social media said to be taken at the Kati garrison showed Keita and Cisse surrounded by armed soldiers. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the videos.
Crowds cheer as soldiers parade in vehicles along the Boulevard de l'Independance in Bamako, Mali on Tuesday.Credit:Getty Images
Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Bamako since June calling for Keita to resign over what they say are his failures to address worsening security and corruption.
France and other international powers as well as the African Union denounced the mutiny, fearful that the fall of Keita could further destabilise the former French colony and West Africa's entire Sahel region.
Mali's state broadcaster went offline after the spate of detentions, before coming back on air in the early evening with pre-recorded programming.
Rumours earlier in the day that the mutineers had detained Keita prompted hundreds of anti-government protesters to pour into a central square to celebrate and chant that it was time for him to resign.
A man holds a sign saying goodbye to IBK, referring to Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, as soldiers parade in the capital on Tuesday.Credit:Getty Images
Since June, tens of thousands of people in Bamako have taken to the streets to demand Keita's departure, blaming him for corruption and worsening security in the north and centre of the country where.
A mutiny in 2012 at the same Kati base led to a military coup that toppled then-president Amadou Toumani Toure and hastened the fall of Mali's north to jihadist militants, some with links to al-Qaeda.
French forces intervened the following year to beat them back. But the militants have since regrouped and expanded their influence into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, where Boko Haram is also active, attacking soldiers, local civilians and Western tourists.
Regional fears
France and other international powers as well as the African Union, fearful that the fall of Keita could further destabilise Mali - a former French colony - and West Africa's entire Sahel region, denounced the mutiny. Three years ago they formed a multinational military force in the Sahel to fight extremism.
"I energetically condemn the arrest of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the Prime Minister and other members of the Malian government and call for their immediate liberation," African Union chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said on Twitter.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France "condemns in the strongest terms this grave event". The US envoy to the Sahel, J Peter Pham, said on Twitter that "the US is opposed to all extra-constitutional changes of government".
Protesters took to the streets of Bamako in June to demand the President's resignation.Credit:AP
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called on the Mali soldiers to return to their barracks and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Malians to protect democratic institutions.
At least 14 people were killed in July in the demonstrations that were called for by a coalition of Keita's political opponents, religious leaders and civil society activists.
Keita had hoped concessions to opponents and recommendations from a mediating delegation of regional leaders would help stem the tide of dissatisfaction, but the protest leaders have rejected proposals to join a power-sharing government.
"Whether he's been arrested or not, what is certain is that his end is near. God is granting our prayers. IBK is finished," Haidara Assetou Cisse, a teacher, said earlier in the day, referring to Keita by his initials.
Reuters