The Federal Government on Wednesday condemned Tuesday coup d’état in Mali by mutineering soldiers.
Reacting to the coup on Wednesday, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, tweeted, “The Nigerian Government unequivocally condemns the coup d’état that took place in Mali yesterday and demands the immediate and unconditional restoration of constitutional order. We welcome the urgent activation of the ECOWAS Standby force.”
It was earlier reported that rebel soldiers took President Ibrahim Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse into custody on Tuesday afternoon and drove the pair to a military base on the outskirts of Bamako, which they had seized that morning.
Keita, whose government had been beset by months of protests over economic stagnation, corruption and a brutal Islamist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives, later announced early Wednesday that he had resigned to avoid “bloodshed”.
The ousted and embattled president made a in a television broadcast , he said, “If it pleased certain elements of our military to decide this should end with their intervention, do I really have a choice?”.
He added, “I must submit to it, because I don’t want any bloodshed.”
The coup’s leaders appeared on television hours later to pledge a political transition and new elections within a “reasonable time”.
Malian Air Force deputy Chief of Staff, Ismael Wague, said he and his fellow officers had “decided to take responsibility in front of the people and of history”.
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