Mali’s political crisis, which has kept West African leaders on edge, worsened on Tuesday evening with reports that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse were detained by mutinying soldiers on compounded by a jihadist insurgency and mass protests.
In Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday received his immediate predecessor in office, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, at State House, Abuja, as a result of the drama in Mali.
Dr Jonathan, who is ECOWAS Special Envoy to the Republic of Mali, briefed on the political situation in the West African country, as corollary to efforts by West African leaders to restore stability to the country.
In Bamako, other top government officials were also taken into custody.
Earlier on Tuesday, soldiers took up arms at the military base in Kati, a town 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the capital Bamako, and began arresting senior military officers and civil servants.
DW correspondent Mahamadou Kane, who was in Bamako ahead of the leaders’ arrests, said: “More and more people are gathering at Independence Square in support of the M5-RFP movement that wants to see the resignation of the president and the prime minister Boubou Cisse. They seem to support the military but it remains unclear what the demands of the military are.”
Rebel troops surrounded Keita’s private residence that evening and fired shots into the air before taking the leader into custody.
Cisse, who had earlier urged the soldiers to lay down their arms after the uprising kicked off, was also seized. One of the prime minister’s staff said the pair were being held at the army base in Kati.
Soldiers were then spotted moving freely through Bamako — a sign that they were making gains in the capital.
DW learned earlier on Tuesday that several high-ranking politicians and officials were arrested, including the Minister of Finance Abdoulaye Daffe and the chief of staff of the National Guard. State broadcaster ORTM was evacuated and later went offline, reported Reuters.
The chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, tweeted that he strongly condemned the arrest of Keita and Cisse and called for their release.
President Buhari and four other ECOWAS leaders had visited Bamako, Mali, last month, followed by a virtual extraordinary summit of the sub-regional body.
Dr Jonathan, who was in Mali from Monday to Thursday, last week, recounted his meetings with the stakeholders, including political and religious leaders, Ambassadors of US, France, Russia, Germany, European Union, and other important personalities key to peace and cohesion in the country.
The main opposition group, M5, he said, continued to insist on the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a position not acceptable to ECOWAS, which insisted only on democratic process in change of power within its jurisdiction.
“We told them that no international organization, including the African Union (AU), United Nations (UN), and others, would agree with their position. We continued to emphasize the need for dialogue,” former President Jonathan stressed.
He added that the Constitutional Court had been reconstituted and inaugurated, while vacancies in the Supreme Court had been filled, thus sorting out the judicial arm of government.
President Buhari thanked Dr Jonathan for what he called “the stamina you have displayed” on the Mali issue, and counseled further consultations with the Chairman of ECOWAS, President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic.
▪︎ Additional reports by dw.com
