Mali's president announces resignation after armed mutiny
Bamako: Mali's president announced his resignation late Tuesday, just hours after armed soldiers seized him from his home in a dramatic power grab following months of protests demanding his ouster.
The news of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's departure was met with jubilation by anti-government demonstrators and alarm by former colonial ruler France, and other allies and foreign nations.
The UN Security Council scheduled a closed meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the unfolding situation in Mali, where the UN has a 15,600-strong peacekeeping mission.
Speaking on national broadcaster ORTM just before midnight, a distressed Keita, wearing a mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic, said his resignation three years before his final term was due to end was effective immediately. A banner across the bottom of the television screen referred to him as the outgoing president.
I wish no blood to be shed to keep me in power, Keita said. I have decided to step down from office. He also announced that his government and the National Assembly would be dissolved, certain to further the country's turmoil amid an eight-year Islamic insurgency and the growing coronavirus pandemic.
Keita, who was democratically elected in 2013 and reelected five years later, was left with few choices after the mutinous soldiers seized weapons from the armory in the garrison town of Kati and then advanced on the capital of Bamako. They took Prime Minister Boubou Cisse into custody along with the president.
There was no immediate comment Wednesday from the troops, who hailed from the same military barracks where a coup was launched more than eight years ago, allowing the Islamic insurgency to take hold amid a power vacuum.
The political upheaval unfolded months after disputed legislative elections. And it also came as support for Keita tumbled amid criticism of his government's handling of the insurgency, which has engulfed a country once praised as a model of democracy in the region.
The military has taken a beating over the past year from Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked groups. A wave of particularly deadly attacks in the north in 2019 prompted the government to close its most vulnerable outposts as part of a reorganization aimed at stemming the losses.
Tuesday's developments were condemned by the African Union, the United States, and the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, which had been trying to mediate Mali's political crisis. Former colonizer France and the United Nations, which has maintained a peacekeeping mission in Mali since 2013, also expressed alarm ahead of Keita's speech.
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'India stands in solidarity': PM speaks to UAE president, condemns attacks on Gulf nation
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday night spoke to the President of the UAE, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and strongly condemned the attacks on the Gulf nation, saying India stands in solidarity with the UAE in these difficult times.
Mod also thanked the UAE president for taking care of the Indian community living in the Gulf nation, and said New Delhi supports de-escalation, regional peace, security and stability.
"Spoke with President of the UAE, my brother Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Strongly condemned the attacks on the UAE and condoled the loss of lives in these attacks. India stands in solidarity with the UAE in these difficult times.
"Thanked him for taking care of the Indian community living in the UAE. We support de-escalation, regional peace, security and stability," Modi wrote on X.
Iranian strikes across the UAE in the past two days have resulted in three fatalities and injuries to 58 people, including an Indian national, officials confirmed on Sunday.
The Indian Embassy in the UAE, in a social media post, said it was aware of the injury to the Indian national and was in touch with the hospital authorities.
The UAE's defence ministry said it intercepted 165 ballistic missiles, of which 152 were destroyed, and 13 drowned in the sea.
It also destroyed two cruise missiles and 541 Iranian drones, 506 of which were shot down, the ministry said.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a coordinated US-Israeli airstrike on Tehran early Saturday, with the Iranian state media confirming the death on Sunday.
Iran began firing missiles at Israel and the Arab countries in the region in retaliation for the killing of its supreme leader.
