Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said on Tuesday he was resigning and dissolving parliament, hours after mutinying soldiers detained him and top officials from his government.
“I want no blood to be spilled to keep me in power,” he said in a brief address broadcast on state television.
President Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other top government officials were earlier detained by mutinying soldiers, worsening a national crisis in a country already grappling with a jihadist insurgency and mass protests.
It was not immediately clear who was leading the revolt, who would govern in Keita’s absence or what the mutineers wanted.