Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said on Tuesday he was resigning and dissolving parliament, hours after mutinying soldiers detained him and top officials from his government. “I want no blood to be spilled to keep me in power,” he said in a brief address broadcast on state television.
President Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other top government officials were earlier detained by mutinying soldiers, worsening a national crisis in a country already grappling with a jihadist insurgency and mass protests. It was not immediately clear who was leading the revolt, who would govern in Keita’s absence or what the mutineers wanted.
The mutiny came after months of political crisis following the fallout from Mali’s parliamentary elections. In March, opposition leader Soumaila Cisse was kidnapped three days ahead of the first round of votes. On election day, the abduction of officials, trashing of polling stations and a deadly mine explosion marred the votes. The second round of votes, in April, was disrupted in the country’s volatile north and central areas. Later, Mali’s constitutional court overturned the results of some 30 seats, a move that was advantageous for 10 candidates in President Keita’s party. In June, public anger at the government’s handling of the elections spilled onto the streets in the capital Bamako. The June 5 Movement — Rally of Patriotic Forces, known as M5-RFP, have held further anti-government protests, with many demanding Keita resign. Fourteen people were killed during protests in July. Kati saw a mutiny in 2012 that led to a coup d’etat that ousted then-President Amadou Toumani Toure and contributed to the fall of northern Mali into the hands of jihadi militants.
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