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Mali: Mutineering soldiers seize power ahead of vote
Soldiers stormed the presidential palace and announced Thursday that they had seized control of the country, ousting the president of Mali just one month before he was due to step down at the end of his legal term.
Gunfire could be heard ringing throughout the capital of Mali – Bamako, and the mutinous soldiers imposed a nationwide curfew, warning people to stay off the streets until further notice. A flight headed to the capital of Bamako was forced to make a U-turn in the air after the airport closed.
The soldiers said they are overthrowing the government because of its mishandling of an ethnic Tuareg insurgency in the country’s north that began in mid-January. The rebellion grew when fighters who had supported the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi returned home heavily armed. The unrest has forced tens of thousands to flee, and has prompted fierce criticism of Mali’s government.
Early Thursday, a group of around 20 soldiers in military fatigues were shown on national television crowding around a desk, facing the camera.
They announced that Mali is now under the control of the military’s National Committee for the Reestablishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State, or CNRDR. They said they were suspending Mali’s constitution and dissolving its institutions.
The soldiers complained that the civilian government had not done enough to combat a rebellion by the ethnic Tuareg separatists, who want to carve out a homeland in the country’s northern desert.
“The CNRDR representing all the elements of the armed forces, defensive forces and security forces has decided to assume its responsibilities and end the incompetent and disavowed regime of President Amadou Toumani Toure,” they said, reading from a statement. “The objective of the CNRDR does not in any way aim to confiscate power, and we solemnly swear to return power to a democratically elected president as soon as national unity and territorial integrity are established.”
