The coalition in Mali behind mass protests calling for President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to resign said the detention of Keita 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.
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the arrest of President Keita and top government officials by the soldiers, calling for their immediate release.
“The Secretary-General … calls for the immediate restoration of constitutional order and rule of law in Mali,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Source: REUTERS
