Mali, the official news agency, confirmed the arrest of President Ibrahim Abubakar Keita and Prime Minister Bobo Sisi today, Tuesday, by a military force, which it described as a rebel.
The agency added that the army chief of general staff, the president of the National Assembly (parliament), and the ministers of foreign affairs, defense and economy, were also arrested.
This came hours after news of a rebellion circulated at the Kati military base on the outskirts of the capital, where gunfire was heard, and local media said that the leaders of the rebellion had arrested a number of senior civilian and military officials.
Pictures and video clips circulating on social media showed military forces in front of the president's residence, and soldiers driving into two cars containing civilians.
To Katie's base
"We can assure you that the president and the prime minister are in our grip," the French Press Agency quoted a soldier who said he was one of the leaders of the rebellion. Al-Askari, who asked not to be identified, explained that they were arrested from the president's house.
The agency quoted another military source in the rebel camp as saying "President Keita and the Prime Minister are in an armored vehicle heading to Katy," which is the military base where the rebellion began.
For its part, the Associated Press quoted eyewitnesses as saying that rebel soldiers surrounded the presidential residence and fired shots in the air.
And Reuters, citing two security sources, said that rebel soldiers had arrested President Ibrahim Abu Bakr Keita, after the arrest of a number of senior civil and military officials.
On the other hand, a source in the Ministry of Defense of Finance denied in a statement to Agence France-Presse that what happened in Bamako was a rebellion, stressing that the ministry was monitoring the situation closely.
African condemnation
On the other hand, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, expressed his condemnation of the arrest of the President of Mali, the Prime Minister and other members of the Malian government, and called for their immediate release.
Faki condemned any attempt for unconstitutional change in Mali, calling on the rebels to stop using violence and respect state institutions.
Faki called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations and the international community to unite their efforts and work effectively to oppose any use of force to end the political crisis in Mali.
For its part, the ECOWAS group condemned what it described as the rebellion in the capital, Bamako, and affirmed in a statement its steadfast rejection of any unconstitutional political change, and called on the Malian military to respect the republican system and return immediately to their barracks.