France, ECOWAS Send Serious Warning To Soldiers In Mali Following Arrest Of President, Prime Minister

Mali’s President Ibrahim Keita Boubacar

France has condemned in the strongest terms the arrest of the President and Prime Minister of Mali by mutiny soldiers.

Foreign Minister, Jean Yves Le Drian, said in a statement on Tuesday, “France has become aware of the mutiny that has taken place today in Kati, Mali. It condemns in the strongest terms this serious event.

The statement further urged the soldiers to return to their barracks “without delay”.

Also the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS has told the Mali soldiers to ‘return to barracks’ immediately.

ECOWAS called on the soldiers “to return to their barracks without delay”.

“This mutiny comes at a time when, for several months now, ECOWAS has been taking initiatives and conducting mediation efforts with all the Malian parties,” the bloc said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera.

Recall that on Tuesday Malian soldiers arrested the country’s president, Ibrahim Boubacar and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse.

Soldiers earlier on Tuesday rounded up senior government and military officers in Kati town and elsewhere.