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The leader of Mali’s 2020 coup, Col. Assimi Goita, has declared himself the country’s President, hours after the release of Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and President Bah Ndaw from custody.
President Bah N’Daw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane were arrested Monday, along with other government leaders, hours after naming a new Cabinet that did not include two major former junta leaders.
An additional 20 interim officials had been “kidnapped” by forces loyal to the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, which ruled the region until it was toppled by an offensive ordered by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in November. A further four have been “wounded and hospitalized,” said the statement issued on Twitter.
Abiy declared victory four weeks after the offensive began and replaced the TPLF’s regional administration with an interim one headed by officials appointed by the federal government based in Addis Ababa. But six months on, fighting continues in Tigray as pro-TPLF fighters wage an insurgent campaign in the region’s countryside.
General Commander of the National Police Cesar Cervantes on Monday confirmed the death of 18 people in a population center in Vizcatan Province, located in the Valley of Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers (VRAEM) area, which was allegedly caused by remnants of the terrorist organization known as Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path).
“According to pamphlets found (in the area), which have been read and analyzed by agents of the Anti-Terrorism Directorate (Dircote), at this moment we can already say that they are members of the terrorist organization Shining Path,” he said in statements to Canal N.
Military officers in Mali arrested the president, prime minister and defence minister of the country’s interim government on Monday after a cabinet reshuffle, multiple diplomatic and government sources told Reuters.
President Bah Ndaw, Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and defence minister Souleymane Doucoure were all taken to a military base in Kati outside the capital Bamako, the sources said.
Around 40 regime soldiers have reportedly been killed during fierce clashes by the Karenni People’s Defense Force (PDF), formed by civilian resistance fighters, and the Karenni Army in Kayah State on Sunday.
A clash broke out in Moe Bye on the Shan-Kayah state border on Sunday morning with the regime forces indiscriminately firing artillery shells at civilian houses, injuring two civilians and destroying homes, according to a member of the Karenni PDF.