In this file photo taken on Jan 27, 2021 Mali President Bah Ndaw leaves after a working lunch with the French president at the Elysee presidential Palace in Paris. Malian officers upset with a government reshuffle detained the president and prime minister at an army camp outside the capital on May 24, 2021, triggering international condemnation and a demand for their immediate release. (LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP)
Mali's interim vice-president, Colonel Assimi Goita, said on Tuesday that he had seized power after the transitional president and prime minister failed to consult him about the formation of a new government.
He said elections would be held next year as planned.
Interim vice-president, Colonel Assimi Goita, orchestrated the detentions after two fellow coup leaders were dropped from their government posts in a cabinet reshuffle
President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane were arrested and taken to a military base outside the capital on Monday evening, prompting swift condemnation from international powers, some of which called it an "attempted coup".
The two men were in charge of a transitional government created after a military coup in August that ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. They were tasked with overseeing a return to democratic elections next year.
Goita, who led the August coup, orchestrated the detentions after two fellow coup leaders were dropped from their government posts in a cabinet reshuffle on Monday.
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In a statement read by an aide on national television, Goita said elections next year to restore an elected government would go ahead as planned.
"The vice president of the transition saw himself obligated to act to preserve the transitional charter and defend the republic," the statement reads.
This AFP graphic dated May 25, 2021 shows the map of Mali locating the capital Bamako where soldiers detained the president and prime minister on Monday.
The United Nations, European Union and regional countries have all condemned the military's actions and demanded the immediate release of the detained leaders.
"Sanctions will be adopted against those who stand in the way of the transition," Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign affairs chief, said on Twitter.
A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which played a key role in the formation of an interim government after the August coup, will visit Bamako on Tuesday
A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was expected to visit Mali on Tuesday. ECOWAS played a key role in the formation of the interim government after the August coup.
The streets of Bamako were calm on Tuesday and two sources told Reuters that Ndaw and Ouane were still being held at the military base in Kati. A spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, said it was seeking access to check on the condition of those detained.
The situation could exacerbate instability in the West African country, where Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State control large areas of the north and center and stage frequent attacks on the army and civilians.
Political instability and military infighting have complicated efforts by Western powers and neighboring countriesto prop up the impoverished nation.
Mali has been in turmoil since a coup to oust president Amadou Toumani Toure in 2012 coincided with an ethnic Tuareg rebellion in the north, which was then hijacked by jihadists linked to al-Qaeda.
French forces drove back the Islamists in 2013 but they have regrouped and expanded their reach to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
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