Malian President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has resigned in the wake of nationwide calls for his resignation.
Keita on Wednesday said he was resigning to avoid “bloodshed”, hours after his arrest by troops.
Checkout Magazine learnt that Rebel soldiers reportedly detained Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse on Tuesday afternoon and drove the duo to a military base in the town of Kati, near the capital Bamako, which they had seized that morning.
Keita who appeared in a state television broadcast, midnight, to declare the dissolution of the government and national assembly, said he had no choice but to resign with immediate effect.
“If it pleased certain elements of our military to decide this should end with their intervention, do I really have a choice?” he said of the day’s events.
“(I must) submit to it, because I don’t want any bloodshed.”