Mali Vice President Confirms Take Over, Fires Detained President

Malian Vice President Assimi Goita said he fired the nation’s president and prime minister, hours after the two men were detained by mutinous soldiers.

“In light of recent events, I feel obliged to relieve the president and prime minister of their functions to defend the republic,” Goita said in a statement read on state television Tuesday by Baba Cisse, an adviser to Goita.

Soldiers arrested President Bah N’Daw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and took them military barracks outside the capital, Bamako, after the announcement on Monday afternoon of a new cabinet that removed two members of the nation’s former junta. The detentions raised fears of a second coup in Mali nine months after President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was forced to step down under pressure from a military council lead by Goita.

Mali, Africa’s third-biggest gold producer, has been a linchpin of international efforts, involving France and the European Union, to defeat jihadists in the semi-arid Sahel regional. Islamists’ deadly raids have spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, killing thousands of people.

Goita accused N’Daw and Ouane of having violated the nation’s transition charter, under which Mali is supposed to hold elections in February. His dismissal of N’Daw and Ouane came hours before the arrival of a delegation of Economic Community of West African states officials for talks about the nation’s latest political crisis.

It wasn’t immediately clear who will lead the nation’s transitional government. Goita, a military officer, led the junta until September, when power was handed over to a transitional government, taking the position of vice president responsible for defense.












Image Source: Aljazeera