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Mali President Resigns After Arrest by Rebel Soldiers

VOA News

   President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resigned late Tuesday night, hours
   after he was arrested by mutinous soldiers following months of
   political turmoil in the West African nation.

   Wearing a surgical mask in recognition of the coronavirus pandemic, a
   weary-looking Keita appeared on state television to announce he was
   stepping down in order to avoid any bloodshed.

   The 75-year-old deposed leader said if "certain elements" of the
   military wanted to end his presidency with "their intervention, do I
   really have a choice?" Keita also announced that his government and the
   National Assembly would be dissolved.

   Keita's resignation speech capped a day of turmoil that began when
   soldiers seized weapons from an army base in Kati and advanced on the
   capital of Bamako. A reporter in Mali told VOA's French to Africa
   service that the soldiers ""went on the rampage, got to the arsenals,
   got the guns, started shooting in the air, went out and cut off access
   to the camp."'¯

   Scores of anti-government protesters gathered in Bamako's central
   square to cheer the soldiers on as they made their way to Keita's house
   to arrest him.

   The soldiers arrested Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse at Keita's
   house and drove them back to Kati, the same camp where the
   2012'¯coup'¯that'¯overthrew President Amadou'¯Toumani Toure began. The
   overthrow of Toure unleashed a violent Islamic insurgency in central
   Mali, despite the ongoing presence of French troops that initially
   drove the jihadists out of northern Mali.

   No'¯casualties'¯have been reported from Tuesday's uprising.

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