The strong man of the Malian power, Colonel Assimi Goïta, indicated Tuesday to have relieved of their prerogatives the president and the Prime Minister of transition, arrested.

While London calls for the release of the latter two, the European Union, through the voice of Emmanuel Macron, threatens the protagonists with targeted sanctions.

"An unacceptable coup": European leaders "condemned in the strongest terms the arrest of the President of Mali and his Prime Minister," Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday at the end of a European summit, the France calling for an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council.

"We are ready, in the coming hours, if the situation is not clarified, to take targeted sanctions" against the protagonists, Emmanuel Macron said at a press conference.

"Immediate conviction"

The strong man of the Malian power, Colonel Assimi Goïta, indicated Tuesday to have relieved of their prerogatives the president and the Prime Minister of transition, guilty according to him of attempted "sabotage", in what is akin to a second putsch in nine months.

"We strongly condemned the arrest of the transitional president, his prime minister and their collaborators," Emmanuel Macron reported.

"What has been carried out by the military putschists is an unacceptable coup d'etat, which calls for our immediate condemnation," said the French president.

In a declaration of regaining control despite the dismay caused among the Malians and the broad international disapproval, Colonel Goïta accused President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane of having formed a new government without consulting him, although he is in charge of defense and security, crucial areas in the troubled Sahelian country.

London "very concerned"

Minusma, the African Union (AU), the United States and Germany also "strongly condemned the attempted coup".

They rejected in advance any fait accompli, including a possible forced resignation of the arrested leaders. 

The UK has called for the "immediate" and "unconditional" release of the president and the transitional prime minister. London says it is "very concerned" by the risk "that recent events will undermine the efforts underway to restore (constitutional) order within the allotted time". UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for "calm" in Mali and "unconditional release" for Bah Ndaw and Moctar Ouane.