MALI: Renegade Malian soldiers announce on state television after hours of fighting that they have seized power, imposed immediate curfew and closed borders.

Record ID: 376709

  • Title: MALI: Renegade Malian soldiers announce on state television after hours of fighting that they have seized power, imposed immediate curfew and closed borders.
  • Date: 23rd March 2012
  • Summary: BAMAKO, MALI (MARCH 22, 2012) (REUTERS) DESERTED STREETS (SOUNDBITE) (French) TAXI DRIVER, SOULEIMANE DIALLO, SAYING: "Since around midday we saw soldiers everywhere on the streets shooting in the air. We don't like that at all. There are soldiers everywhere, but they don't touch the civilian population." SOUND OF GUNFIRE / TRACER LIGHT SEEN ROADBLOCK / SOLDIERS SEEN
  • Embargoed: 7th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mali, Mali
  • Country: Mali
  • Topics: Conflict,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8VTYVN815ZVO4A5U1BSFPM74L
  • Story Text: Mutinous soldiers in Mali attacked the presidential palace overnight on Thursday (March 22), turning a protest over the government's handling of a nomad-led rebellion in the north into an all-out coup d'etat bid.
    After hours of fighting in the capital Bamako, the soldiers went on state television to declare they had seized power, imposed immediate curfew and closed borders.
    The coup has been fronted by soldiers of the rank of captain or lower and, if successful, will add a new layer of insecurity to a Saharan region battling al Qaeda agents and a flood of weapons trafficked from Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
    Taxi driver Souleimane Diallo said the troubles started around midday on Wednesday (March 21).
    "Since around midday we saw soldiers everywhere on the streets shooting in the air. We don't like that at all. There are soldiers everywhere, but they don't touch the civilian population," he said.
    The army has for weeks appealed to the government for better weapons to fight the northern Tuareg rebels, now bolstered by heavily armed ethnic allies who fought on Gaddafi's side last year but have returned to Mali.
    Members of the newly formed National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR) forced the state broadcaster off air and read a statement after heavy weapons fire rang out around the presidential palace in the capital Bamako throughout the night.
    The CNRDR declared all land and air borders shut, but it was impossible to verify whether the mutiny had sufficient support to seal off a country twice the size of France and with seven neighbours. Earlier a Reuters reporter said Bamako airport had been shut down by local police rather than renegade soldiers.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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