Mali Crisis: I Resigned To Avoid Bloodshed – President Keita

President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, has disclosed the reason behind his resignation from office.

He resigned from office — hours after he was arrested by mutinying soldiers.

Keita said he resigned to avoid violence and bloodshed, announcing the dissolution of the government and the national assembly.

“If it pleased certain elements of our military to decide this should end with their intervention, do I really have a choice?” he said in a state broadcast.

“I must submit to it, because I don’t want any bloodshed.”

In June, opponents asked Keita, who had spent two out of his five-year second term in office, to step down.

A resistance group, M5, also insisted that the constitutional court must be dissolved before peace can return to the country.

The events that culminated in the ouster of Keita are a long time coming as frustration boiled over after the annulment of results of 31 parliamentary seats in the country’s elections and the awarding of victory to some candidates, which the resistance group said was on Keita’s order.

On July 10, riots led to the killing of some protesters by security agents.