President Ibrahim Boubacar Kaita of Mali
By Our Reporter
President Ibrahim Boubacar Kaita of Mali has resigned. His resignation became effective in the early hours of Wednesday morning, hours after being detained by mutinying soldiers.
In an address on state television, the 75-year-old also said that both the government and the national assembly would be dissolved.
“I would like at this precise moment, while thanking the Malian people for their support throughout these long years and the warmth of their affection, to tell you of my decision to relinquish my duties,” Keita said.
He made the announcement after rebel soldiers detained him and the prime minister, Boubou Cisse, on Tuesday.
The announcement came after months of political tensions and sometimes-lethal protests in the Sahel state.
The president and the prime minister were detained on Tuesday after soldiers mutinied at the Kati army base outside of capital Bamako and rounded up a number of senior civilian and military officials.
Video footage have emerged on social media showing a convoy of vehicles surrounded by troops, with some users alleging that the president had been taken into custody.
The M5-RFP coalition in Mali behind mass protests calling for the president to resign said Keita’s detention on Tuesday 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, referring to Keita by his initials.
