The National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) “decided to take responsibility in front of the people and of history”, Ismael Wague, the Malian Air Force deputy chief of staff, said in a state television broadcast.
Looking tired and wearing a surgical mask, Keita resigned in a brief address broadcast on state television hours after troops seized him along with Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other top officials, plunging a country already facing a jihadist insurgency and mass protests deeper into crisis.
“If today, certain elements of our armed forces want this to end through their intervention, do I really have a choice?” he said from a military base in Kati outside the capital Bamako where he had been detained earlier in the day.
Earlier on Tuesday, soldiers took up arms in the garrison town of Kati and detained senior military officers, sparking fears of a coup. Witnesses later said soldiers had surrounded Keita’s private residence.
Anti-government protesters in Mali