22/03/2012
Hours after seizing control of Malian state television and the presidential palace, renegade soldiers on Thursday (March 22nd) announced the suspension of the constitution and the dissolution of state institutions, AFP reported.
Members of the new National Committee for the Establishment of Democracy (CNRDR) appeared on state TV to say that they had seized power from an "incompetent regime" and staged the coup over the government's "inability" to handle the Touareg insurrection in the north of the country.
CNRDR spokesman Lieutenant Amadou Konare said the takeover was a result of a "lack of adequate material to defend the nation". He promised an eventual "return to civilian rule".
The TV broadcast came shortly after the rebel soldiers seized the presidential palace and arrested several officials, including Foreign Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga and Interior Minister Kafouhouna Kone.
Late Wednesday, Malian soldiers began the attack on the presidential palace, perched on a hill overlooking Bamako. Witnesses reported heavy gunfire and the use of tracer bullets, while one noted flames coming from the southern side of the palace, perched on a hill overlooking Bamako.
Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure was under the protection of elite "Red Beret" paratroopers at a Bamako military camp, a loyalist soldier said Thursday on condition of anonymity. The paratroopers reportedly attempted to defend the presidency, but the renegade soldiers claimed the upper hand.
The coup comes just before the April elections. Toure served two presidential terms but was not a candidate in the upcoming poll.
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