The Malian soldiers who forced President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to resign in a coup promised early Wednesday to organize new elections after their takeover drew international condemnation.
In a statement carried overnight on state broadcaster ORTM, the mutinous soldiers who staged Tuesday’s military coup identified themselves as the National Committee for the Salvation of the People led by Colonel Major Ismael Wague said they acted to prevent Mali from falling into further chaos.
He promised elections within a reasonable period to “give Mali strong institutions capable of better managing our everyday lives and restoring confidence between the governed and the governors”.
Wague said all international agreements will still be respected and international forces, including the UN mission in Mali and G5 Sahel, will remain in place “for the restoration of stability”.
The French military has been silent since the coup began, refusing to comment on what its troops in Mali are doing as the crisis plays out.
The French government has not publicly commented since Keita’s resignation. The coup is a blow to France and to President Emmanuel Macron, who has supported Keita and sought to improve relations with former colonies in Africa.
The coup leaders also remain “committed to the Algiers process” – a 2015 peace agreement between the Malian government and armed groups in the north of the country, Wague said.
The news of Keita’s was met with jubilation by anti-government demonstrators in the capital, Bamako, and with alarm by Mali’s former colonial ruler, France, and other allies and foreign nations.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled a closed meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the unfolding situation in Mali, where the U.N. has a 15,600-strong peacekeeping mission.
Keita, who was democratically elected in a 2013 landslide and reelected five years later, still had three years left in his term. But his popularity had plummeted, and demonstrators began taking to the streets calling for his ouster in June.