BREAKING: Mali president, other high rank officials detained by mutinous soldiers

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other high rank officials have been detained by mutinying soldiers on Tuesday night.

A regional official says Mali’s president and prime minister are now in the custody of mutinous soldiers, plunging the country into deeper political turmoil, Reuters reports.

According to Reuters, early on Tuesday, soldiers took up arms at the military base in Kati, a town 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Bamako, and began arresting senior military officers.

OnyxNews Nigeria gathered that earlier on Tuesday that many high-ranking politicians and officials have been arrested, including the Minister of Finance Abdoulaye Daffe and the chief of staff of the National Guard.

Reacting to the happening, the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemned the arrest of Keita and Cisse and called for their release.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on it side stated that soldiers had launched a “mutiny” and urged them to immediately return to their barracks.

The French Foreign Ministry condemned the mutiny “in the strongest terms” and urged the Mali military to return to barracks. Over 5,000 French troops are stationed across the Sahel region that includes Mali to counter jihadi violence.