M5-RFP, the coalition in Mali behind mass protests has said that the arrest and detention of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse was a coup.
The coalition, which has been calling for the resignation of Keita and the Prime Minister said their detention by mutinying soldiers was “not a military coup but a popular insurrection.”
“IBK did not want to listen to his people. We even proposed an alternative but he responded with killings,” Nouhoum Togo, spokesman for the M5-RFP coalition, told Reuters news agency, referring to Keita by his initials.
DAILY POST reported on Tuesday that Malian soldiers arrested the country’s president, Ibrahim Boubacar and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse.
DAILY POST had reported that soldiers on earlier on Tuesday rounded up senior government and military officers in Kati town and elsewhere.
During the arrest, there were thousands of citizens cheering the ouster.
Crowds are jubilating at Independence Square in Bamako, Mali, and other places.
For more nearly three months, demonstrations demanding for Keita’s resignation were held.
Dozens lost their lives, a situation that worsened the crisis.
Keita’s removal comes amid the intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
