Former Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta is back home in the capital of Bamako Friday, a day after being released from a military base in Kita.
Keïta was detained by the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (NCSP) during a military coup d’état last week, and he announced his resignation a short time later.
During his detention, Keïta was reported to have said he was not forced from office, and does not want to return to office, but wants a speedy return to a democratically elected government.
The United Nations, along with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), had called for the safe release of Keïta, who is also known as President IBK.
Meanwhile, the European Union has said it will “temporarily” suspend its army and police training missions in Mali, following the military coup that overthrew Keïta on August 18th.
The bloc’s decision was announced by the EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrel after a meeting in Berlin with the defense ministers from the bloc’s 27 member countries.
“We don’t train the armies to be putschists,” Borrell said.
“None of the four most prominent leaders of this military movement against the president Boubacar, have been trained by our mission.”
“They have been training in Russia and in the United States,” Borrell said.
He added that he hoped the missions would continue “as soon as possible”.
The EU mission has trained about 18,000 soldiers and recently announced that it is expanding its training mandate to Niger and Burkina Faso.
The coup leaders running Mali is seeking to rule until 2023, despite calls from the international community for a quick return to civilian rule.
