Soldiers in Mali took up arms in the garrison town of Kati on Tuesday and detained senior military officers in an apparent mutiny, raising fears of a coup after several months of anti-government demonstrations calling for the president’s resignation.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the latest turmoil to wrack Mali, but the unrest erupted at the very same military barracks where the country’s 2012 coup originated.
In the nearby capital of Bamako, government workers fled their offices as armed men began detaining officials including the country’s finance minister Abdoulaye Daffe.
Officials are being arrested — it’s total confusion,” said an officer at Mali’s Ministry of Internal Security, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.
It was not immediately known where embattled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was when the chaos erupted Tuesday. The president, who was democratically elected, has broad support from former colonizer France and other Western allies.
About 100 of the protesters who have called for Keita’s ouster gathered midday in Bamako in a show of support for the mutinous soldiers.
The regional bloc known as ECOWAS that has been mediating Mali’s current political crisis urged the soldiers to return immediately to their barracks in Kati, which is only 15 kilometers (less than 10 miles) from the presidential palace in the capital.
The dramatic developments Tuesday bore a troubling resemblance to the events leading up to the 2012 military coup, which ultimately unleashed years of chaos in Mali
